Psy Darkness
by Shade Oliver
Summary: Snivy ends up transported miles from home in a place he doesn't know after touching a mysterious spinning disc. It soon becomes apparent that the reasoning behind it is more sinsiter than it seems. Snivy and Squeak the Pipulp alongside Haunter, Mismagius, Darkrai and the rest of the famous ghost forces must find out why. Pairings: Haunter x Darkrai and light Snivy x Purrloin
1. A Rift in Space and Time

_**Chapter One – A Rift in Space and Time**_

Snivy couldn't quite tell what it was that made today seem so very special. Things seemed normal but some Grass sixth sense was telling him that this was going to be no ordinary day. Snivy had never been a psychic Pokémon, nor had he ever wanted to be one as his experience of psychic Pokémon was limited to the occasional visits of Munna in the town where he lived and it spent almost all of its time asleep. No, Snivy was proud to be a grass Pokémon and he wasn't afraid to stick up for his type no matter what. Yet there seemed to be something in the air that was telling him something was about to happen. He was unsure whether the rest of the Pokémon in his town could feel the same kind of mysterious buzzing tension hanging in the air but he could feel it. As well as being the only Snivy in the area, he also prided in being one of the only grass Pokémon for miles and miles around, all the way up to Accumula town at least, where there was a group of resident Pansages. Snivy didn't expect for an instant that something as simple as a Pansage would understand the feeling he was now experiencing, or a stupid Lillipup or Patrat even. Snivy considered all normal type Pokémon to be quite simple minded, sometimes even completely dim witted, communicating in only the most primitive of squeaks, barks and chirrups.

Snivy was standing to the left of a large house with a green roof and an oaken front door in Nuvema town, somewhere to the south of Accumula where most of the other Pokémon lived. Snivy had a large tail in the shape of an ivy leaf and a two large brown eyes framed by slightly yellowing leaves and more plumage in the form of a golden plume about his head. He held his head very high, sniffing the air for any hint of the burning smell that often issued from the occasional visits of the Pansear when they passed by on their way to Accumula but all he could smell was the pollen drifting through the air from the flowers around his house. He descended the steps of his house, blinking his large eyes slightly deliriously as he stepped from the shade into the bright meadows around the village. He set off at a brisk walk down towards route one, the route which connected them to Accumula town.

"I wouldn't go…yawn…that way if I was you." Yawned a soft voice to the left of his ear. Frowning in a bad tempered fashion, Snivy turned around to find Munna gliding along by his left ear, "There are…bad things down this way…"

"You know what I don't like about you psychics?" Snivy snapped looking up at the Munna as it followed him down the field drifting effortlessly alongside him, "You have no idea what you're talking about. Now leave me be." He sped up but the Munna continued right along drifting effortlessly beside him.

"You don't trust me do you?" The Munna contemplated him through its large red eyes, "But there are…dangers…dangers of which you know not…"

"Yeah. Dangers of which I know not. Got it." Snivy snapped not looking up at the Munna, "Now get lost, can't anyone enjoy a nice peaceful walk without getting bothered by you about tragedies and dangers of which they know not? Or is that too much to ask for in this place?"

"Don't say I didn't…warn you." The Munna said lazily and with that it floated lazily up into the sky, turning a somersault as it did so and drifted ahead of him into the trees, "But then again not even…Patrat listen to me these day…say I talk to much…"

"Oh really?" sneered Snivy, "I'd be more worried if they did listen." The Munna sighed gloomily and vanished into the undergrowth, "Stupid Munna." Snivy said to himself angrily, "Can't it ever leave me in peace?" He assumed instantly that the Munna had felt the strange excitement in the air just like him but had interpreted it as a sinister sense of doom and foreboding, but then again, what had he expected from a Munna? Snivy pressed on down the route, there was definitely some excitement in the air now, and it almost pinched at your skin as you walked. Snivy walked past a familiar patch of long grass and stopped still to look into it, there was nothing there. He didn't know why he bothered looking, he guessed that maybe the lack of squealing and scuffling Patrat had unnerved him a bit, but then he supposed that maybe it was something to do with the Munna spreading its tails of doom and death, but then again, there was no one around. No one at all.

"Snivy? Is that you?" a voice called from a patch of dark grass to his left and Snivy looked around, knowing who it was in an instant, partly because it wasn't incoherent squeaking but partly because he secretly listened out for this voice every time he came down this route.

"Good morning Purrloin!" Snivy said proudly, straightening the leaves around his neck and turning round to face the beautiful purple cat which had just emerged from the trees to speak to him. She had sleek pointed ears and a very pretty purple tail which she waved idly behind her. She looked very delicate on her sleek purple feet but Snivy knew she was very good fighter and it was either very brave or extremely foolish to call her delicate to her face, "Has Munna been bothering you with dangers of which you know not this morning?" Purrloin nodded her violet head.

"Yes, he almost drove me right the way up the wall, but you know how we dark Pokémon are super effective against the psychics and how their powers don't affect us, it left me alone after I took a swipe at it. Has it been bothering you?" Purrloin asked him, sitting back on her back legs and cleaning the back of her paws before looking back at him.

"A little." Snivy straightened himself up "But I got rid of it soon enough."

"Well done." Purrloin beamed at him, "It took me ages; I guess you must just have a knack! But then again, did I expect anything less of you?" Snivy fought hard against a blush that was trying to force its way up into his cheeks.

"Well it was nothing really." He smiled proudly. Purrloin beamed, got to her feet and moved to stand right beside him.

"Where are you heading?" she asked him.

"Just off for a wander down route one." Snivy told her truthfully, "It just seemed like such a nice day and because of the tales that Munna's telling, there are no Patrat around either."

"I'll come with you." Purrloin smiled at him, stretching her front paws out before falling into step beside him. Snivy was feeling very proud of himself, most of the other times he'd met Purrloin she'd been heading home or she'd been busy, and he very rarely got to go out for a walk with her, and it was such a good day for it today, there were no Patrat to sit there sniggering at them from the side of the path. He found he was holding his head much higher than he normally did.

"It's funny…" Purrloin spoke up, "But when I got up this morning I could've sworn there was some kind of strange feeling in the air…I know it sounds like a stupid thing to say."

"No I know what you mean." Snivy assured her, "I felt like that this morning when I woke up too. I don't think I can feel it so much now. It's like as though there's something dancing on your skin isn't it!" Purrloin nodded and looked back ahead of her along the route ahead.

"I wonder what it could be." She looked back at Snivy as they walked. Snivy nodded his head. In reality he hadn't even begun to wonder about the truth of this feeling let alone the source. They continued to walk talking playfully as they did so, passing patch after patch of empty grass and empty trees with no Pidove roosting in them before they stopped beside a tree upon which was pinned a tattered brown notice depicting a large sinister looking black Pokémon with what appeared to be smoke concealing most of its face.

'WANTED – DARKRAI of the GHOST FORCES'

"They still haven't had any luck with any of the ghost forces yet have they." Purrloin returned to licking the back of her paws as they took a rest beside the notice, "I don't see how they're going to catch Darkrai though, he's the legendary nightmare Pokémon isn't he?"

"I think so." Snivy ran his hands along the leaves on his neck in order to straighten them out, "They've put posters of various members of the ghost forces everywhere. Haunter, Mismagius, Golbat, Banette…I think I might even have seen the legendary Giratina somewhere!"

"They'll never catch them." Purrloin said dismissively, "They've been trying for years, they'll never catch them." Snivy nodded in agreement before looking back up at the poster where the sinister black Pokémon Darkrai stared back malevolently at them making him shiver slightly but he stopped himself, wondering what Purrloin might say if she saw this. The sun had climbed further into the sky since they'd set out and now it was a beautiful, warm midday with a soft breeze blowing.

"Do you think that Munna was talking about this photograph when she was speaking about dangers of which everyone else knows not, maybe she just saw it and it gave her a fright, I bet she's terrified of Darkrai."

"Wouldn't surprise me." Purrloin stretched her tail out before rolling over to lie on her side in the grass.

"Reward for capture of this Pokémon," Snivy read aloud, scanning down the notice, "One million Poke, one hundred master balls and a top first class villa in Undella town with a sea view across the bay. This makes them sound desperate doesn't it?"

"Well I suppose that in all reality they are." Purrloin had closed her eyes as she lay on her back on the floor basking in the sun, "Considering the things that team have done. I mean what's to stop them coming after our own legendary dragons?" Snivy nodded gloomily. He went to sit down by Purrloin on the grass and resumed the straightening of the leaves around his neck, a common past time of his. Looking just down the track Snivy could see the building connecting them to Accumula which was glinting in the distance. He released the leaves around his neck and began examining the end of his tail, again an activity that he performed daily.

All of a sudden, Purrloin's head came off her paws and she sat bolt upright, her ears pricked and her whiskers twitching. Snivy looked over at her worriedly but she hushed him and continued to listen as hard as she could. Purrloin's hearing was significantly better than Snivy's so Snivy didn't bother; he just stared around trying to see what Purrloin was desperately listening for.

"Can you hear that?" she asked him quickly, not moving her eyes from a spot in the distance somewhere beyond the hedges before them.

"No." Snivy admitted, "What is it?"

"It's like a humming noise." Purrloin twitched her ears to a different angle, "I think it's coming from this direction, let's go and check it out!" She rose to her feet, her long purple ears still raised up catching sound and Snivy hastily climbed to his feet too. The two of them left the shade, Snivy taking one last glance at the glaring face of Darkrai as they went. Purrloin was walking along at such a pace that Snivy had to nearly jog to keep up with her as they pushed through bushes, trees and patches of grass.

"Purrloin?" Snivy managed to catch up with the cat, "Where are we going?"

"I think there might be a clearing with a small lake in it just along from here." Purrloin explained, looking around at him again, "That's where I think the hum is coming from." She didn't speak again until the two of them reached the lake which Purrloin had been referring to and Snivy was completely out of breath. He would've collapsed onto the ground had he not seen what was across the lake at that very moment and he felt his jaw drop. On the small rocky island in the middle of the lake was what appeared to be a spinning purple disc with silvery lights glowing inside it. The feeling of tremendous excitement had returned but this time it had transformed into a sense of sinister foreboding which seemed to reverberate off every tree and emanate through the air.

"What…what is that?" Snivy found words at last gaping at Purrloin.

"I've no idea." Purrloin shook her beautiful head, "But I think it's probably what the Munna was talking about when it's been warning everyone to stay away from here. It might be dangerous if you trust Munna's opinion."

"Yes but who does?" asked Snivy, shrugging, "That Munna's wrong about most things. Besides it can't hurt us if we just go and have a look can it?" Purrloin cocked her head on to one side, looking at the porthole with the utmost suspicion.

"I guess not." She said finally, "I'm a good swimmer; I know not many Purrloins are but I like to swim myself. Hop onto my back and I'll carry you across. Although can you please use vine whip on any Basculin which start splashing me, they're really off-putting!" However Snivy didn't need to use Vine whip as there wasn't a single Basculin in sight, actually there were no other water Pokémon in sight either. Maybe they were all hiding at the bottom of the lake as far away from the spinning, humming disc as they possibly could be. Eventually Purrloin reached the back of the small rock pile and the two of them climbed onto the back, Purrloin shaking water from her fur. The two of them looked up at the disc. Weirdly, Snivy noticed that the disc seemed to be two dimensional yet like a tunnel leading back into the darkness if you looked at it from straight on with silvery orbs floating around within it. The two of them adeptly climbed the rocks until they reached the top of the pile where the disc stood staring out over the forest like some tremendous evil eye glaring down over the forest. Snivy took a step gingerly close to the disc.

"I wouldn't get too close to it if I were you!" Purrloin said warningly, "I don't like the look of it, it gives me the shivers. I think we should leave it alone, like Munna said."

"Why do you suddenly trust Munna so much?" Snivy asked in genuine curiosity.

"I don't know, I just think that maybe she has a point for once. This thing isn't natural. It shouldn't be here, it feels wrong, I suppose that's all." Purrloin shook her head and closed her eyes, looking deliberately away from the disc.

"I'm sure it can't hurt us." Snivy said passionately, trying to comfort her, "Look, it can't do anything to us." He took another step so he was standing right in front of the disc."

"Snivy please come away from it." Purrloin begged him, "It's not safe."

"Look it'll be fine." Snivy shook his head, "It's probably like the discovery of the century or something. Here, if I touch it and nothing happens will you come up here with me?"

"Don't touch it Snivy!" Purrloin sounded really frightened now and it was this tone in her voice which made Snivy stop, "It's not safe! Come down here." Snivy took one last look at the disc before looking back at the terrified Purrloin. He sighed and turned around to walk down the rocks towards her but as he did so, his elegant ivy leaf tail swung around and went straight into the disc. He felt as though something had grabbed hold of his tail and pulled really hard. He fell backwards off his feet and struggled to hang onto the rocks as some invisible force dragged him further and further backwards into the disc.

"Help!" he screamed, "Purrloin help!" He had never seen anyone move as fast as Purrloin did then. She sprang up onto the level of rock he was on in a flash and grabbed his torso with her paws, fighting to hold onto him and stop him being dragged backwards into the oblivion at the end of the disc. But the harder she tried to stop him being dragged backwards the stronger the backwards force became until Purrloin's claws were being scraped through the rock and she too was being hauled towards the disc.

"I can't stop it!" Purrloin screamed out aloud, "It's too…too…" But Snivy never found out what the disc was too much of. Purrloin's claws gave way on the rock and both of them fell head over heels into the disc. They were inside a long purple tunnel stretching off in all directions into other tunnels and branching off to form long passages and corridors. The silver orbs of light floating around them parted to let them pass. The instant they had entered the tunnel the pulling force had relaxed and the two of them could now move without effort although they were floating; a feeling neither of them were used to. Purrloin still had tight hold of him and her eyes were still wide with terror. They flew faster through space, the purple smoke rushing past on either side.

"How do…how do we get back?" Purrloin spluttered, looking around them, "How are we meant to get anywhere, we could have come out of any of these." She gestured around at the many passages as they continued to drift through the space. Snivy had no answer to give.

"I don't know." He looked crestfallen, the leaves around his neck drooping, "I'm sorry Purrloin; this…this is all my fault."

"Don't be sorry." Purrloin told him, "We've got to think ahead now, it doesn't matter alright. It doesn't…doesn't matter…" But clearly it did matter to her for her eyes were brimming with tears which she was evidently fighting back. Snivy had no idea how long they drifted through space but he said nothing, only stroked the purple fur on her paws gently trying to pass the little hope he himself had left onto his friend. All of a sudden the world seemed to be rent apart. There was a tremendous smashing noise and the purple tunnel began to shatter around them revealing a sky covered with storm clouds. There was a crash of thunder and suddenly Snivy was falling.

"Purrloin!" he cried but the purple cat was slipping from his grip. He desperately tried to keep hold of her paws but the winds were too strong and she was whipped out of his grip, crying desperately out behind her. There was a flash of what seemed to be lightning and the remainders of the purple tunnel and Purrloin both vanished into the darkness of the stormy sky.

"No!" Snivy yelled but he was falling fast through the air. It was raining very hard, so it stung his face as he fell faster and faster. It was very dark though Snivy couldn't tell whether this was because it was night or because of the storm clouds covering the sky. There were occasional flashes of light across the sky and deafening rumbles of thunder, "Purrloin! Purrloin!" he yelled back up at the clouds but they were rushing away from him at incredible speed as he fell and the howling winds carried his voice away. Briefly through the darkness he thought he saw a light flash illuminate the top of a tower though he couldn't be sure of this and there was so much rain he couldn't see anything much. He was soaked through and the leaves around his head and body were badly ruffled but he couldn't stop himself falling. Would he fall forever? Then he could see a mountain silhouetted against the storm and then there were trees surrounding it and land became visible though it was little more than a large black mass. It was rushing up faster and faster towards him. Snivy rolled over in the air and noticed trees flying up out of nowhere to meet him, and then he could see a large mirrored surface directly below him. He didn't have time to cry out before he had hit the surface hard and everything went black.


	2. Squeak, Prince and Empoleon

_**Chapter Two – Squeak, Prince and Empoleon **_

Overnight the terrible storm blew itself out to reveal actually quite a nice morning though the ground was soaked and one of the lakes had nearly burst its banks. A fresh breeze was blowing across the country, lifting the leaves into the air and giving the morning a slight chill. The sun glared down at the occupants of the world below and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The wind lifted the leaves around Snivy's neck and slowly he began to return to consciousness. The sun was glaring down from the sky and dazzling Snivy. He realised he was lying on his back on something hard, rock perhaps? Finally he opened his eyes and pushed himself groaning into a sitting position, taking a long look around. He was sat on a hard rock floor looking out over an immense stretch of water which was glistening in the morning sun. He could see the shadows of fish swimming under the surface and there was a thick lush forest surrounding each side of the lake and shadows of birds taking flight amongst the branches. Looking even further he could see a massive mountain towering over the rest of the land with many Rocky Mountains leading down from it some of which were capped with snow. On the very tip of the tallest of the mountains there was distantly visible some kind of tower. Snivy groaned, looking around. He fell to stroking the leaves around his head back down into the right place as they were bent at all kinds of angles after his long fall. Snivy looked back over the breath-taking scenery. He looked at his hands. Purrloin…where was she? He sat upright quickly and made an attempt to climb to his feet but he was extremely shaky and found it very difficult to remain on his feet. He looked out across the lake but he couldn't see Purrloin anywhere, he couldn't see anything else for that matter. He supposed that he must have landed in the lake and washed up on the shore. Suddenly there was a shout from somewhere over the other side of the rocky outcrop he was sitting on. He turned around quickly.

"Purrloin?" he asked hastily, "Basculin? Panpour?" He began searching through his head for any more water Pokémon he knew. However to his astonishment it was none of these. A group of funny looking blue birds erupted over the summit of the rocks flapping their small wings enthusiastically and hopping from rock to rock laughing all the way. They jumped from the top of the third rock to Snivy's left and plunged into the water, showering Snivy with spray and making him step backwards sharply, colliding with some rock and tripping over his own tail. The beauty and magic of the place was broken. The birds erupted from the water laughed, scrambled hastily out of the water dripping all over the rocks and hurried around the outcrop to have another go.

"Hey Squeak!" one of the birds suddenly called and Snivy saw the head of one of them appear back around the corner and stare straight at him. The bird had small black eyes and long blue flippers with blue and white patterns on his feathers. He resembled some kind of small blue penguin, "Come and have a look at this." Eight more of the funny penguins shot back around the corner skidding on the wet rocks as they did so.

"Brilliant!" one of them jumped forwards enthusiastically, flapping his flippers madly so they became a blur, "What is it?"

"I dunno." One of the penguins offered, "Is it some kind of mutated Turtwig?" Snivy wasn't sure what a Turtwig was but it sounded to him very much as though this Pokémon was being extremely rude!

"Would one of you mind…?"

"It talks!" the penguins began to jump up and down madly pointing at him with their flippers and dancing backwards and forwards. One of them stepped up to Snivy curiously before poking him sharply in the shoulder with his left flipper.

"Ouch!" Snivy remarked drawing away.

"It's real!" the penguin announced before skipping back into the group.

"Of course it's real Beaky!" laughed a voice and the penguin was pushed from the group, slipped onto the rocks and fell back into the lake with a splash with a shriek of laughter.

"Do you have your foreign species guide book with you Squeak?" Beaky climbed back out of the lake shaking himself dry and once again showering Snivy with spray.

"I left it at home!" Squeak said in dismay, "The one time I actually need it I leave it at home!"

"Go and get it then Squeak!" and Squeak was pushed into the lake where he began paddling inexpertly back towards the far bank where a small cave was visible cut into the rock.

"Do you mind?" Snivy was highly curious about these creatures and still very worried about both himself and Purrloin yet found he was getting rather angry about this, "And if you don't mind me asking, what are you?"

"What are we?" the Pokémon named Beaky chirruped impatiently, "What do you mean what are we? We are the Piplup, our colonies have lived around Lake Verity for centuries, surely you've heard of us?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Hey get this everyone!" the Piplup turned around to look at the others, "It hasn't even heard of Piplup. Aww…bless it." The Piplup began to huddle closer to Snivy and started to chirrup in a way highly reminiscent of the Pidoves that Snivy had used to ignore back home. Snivy backed away from the Piplup so he was standing at the base of the rock pile on the rocky outcrop.

"Hey guys!" yelled a voice and the Piplup backed off and Snivy saw Squeak climbing out of the water on the other side of the island, completely out of breath. Squeak was carrying a large thickly bound book which he was already rifling through enthusiastically. Snivy wondered whether he could back off from the group of Piplup while they were busy but they kept shooting him sideways looks so this quickly became impossible. Eventually the Piplups put their heads together and began talking in low whispers. Snivy seized his opportunity and scrambled as fast as he could onto the rocks and vanished from sight over the other side. Where was he? What were Piplup or was this some kind of stupid joke? And most of all where had Purrloin ended up? He crawled over the summit of the rocks to look across the lake. The rocky island was isolated in the middle, completely cut off from the banks of trees either side and Snivy happened to be the world's worse swimmer, and anyway if he tried to swim across he'd be caught by the Piplups before he could swim a couple of strokes. Snivy blinked as he looked around, the sunlight gleaming off the water was quite dazzling. He took a step backwards and slipped on the rocks falling back off the outcrop. He felt something wet clamp around his middle as he fell and he was caught before he hit the ground at the base of the rocks. For a second he thought that it was the Piplup sneaking back up on him but realised this was impossible. He was being held tightly by a tremendous dark blue penguin with steel armour coating its wings, feet and beak. It was extremely tall, almost as tall as the rocky outcrop itself. Snivy was too terrified to yell out as though his throat had stuck.

"That would've been a nasty fall little fella." The immense penguin frowned looking down at him over his steel clad beak. Snivy felt himself shaking, "It's lucky I was around to catch you." Snivy said nothing; he looked up into beetle black eyes of this penguin and swallowed hard. And yet he thought he could see them glinting with something that wasn't malice, maybe kindness even?

"I…I'm lost." He stammered, "And this group of…of Piplups were being…being…"

"There, there." The humongous penguin patted his head gently with one of her humongous flippers, "Where about are they? It's not like my son to be late for his breakfast; I thought he might be out for a morning swim. How did you end up on this island?"

"I…I don't really know." Snivy stammered, tears beginning to sting his face, "I fell a long way out of the sky, and there was a tunnel, I don't know where I am…" He looked back up into the large sympathetic eyes belonging to the penguin.

"Do you know who I am?" asked the penguin kindly "or are introductions necessary?"

"I don't know what you are or who you are or where I am, I don't even know if I'm in Unova or not anymore! I'm completely lost." Snivy found his voice becoming stronger again as he looked up at the penguin who was frowning in a very concerned manor.

"Maybe you should come back to our cave." She said slightly firmly, "I'm Squeak's mother and I was just cooking breakfast, you can tell me what's happened to you." Snivy was very grateful for this display of kindness and nodded, realising that the combination of the spray soaking through the leaves on his body and the cold morning wind that he was shivering with cold. The penguin bent down and balanced him gently on his feet before standing up returning to her towering height, "Let's go and find my son." She smiled at him and Snivy hurried along by her side nervously as she emerged around the other side of the rock pile where the Piplups were starting to look around for Snivy, realising at last that they had lost him. Snivy darted behind the immense blue penguins steel armoured legs and peered around at the Piplup, finding himself rather frightened of them. The Piplups took one look at Snivy's escort and shuffled backwards nervously, shuffling their feet guiltily.

"I'm just coming mum." Snivy recognised Squeak appear out of the crowd holding the book clumsily behind his back. As he moved to stand beside his mum he spotted Snivy standing frozen just behind her legs. He opened his mouth to speak but seemed to think better of it and he fell beside her.

"You can go back and play with your friends after breakfast." The mother said gently. Squeak didn't look at her; he was looking past her legs at Snivy who was walking quickly alongside them in order to keep up. Snivy knew Squeak was looking at him but forced himself to keep looking straight ahead and continue walking.

"I don't suppose you can swim dear?" the immense penguin turned to look down at him.

"No." Snivy shook his head, looking out over the water.

"Well you can have a ride on my back then." Squeak's mother looked down at him, "You can hold onto the feathers just beneath the crown on my head but be careful not to pull any of them out."

"Can I have a ride on your back mum?" Squeak asked, flapping his flippers enthusiastically

"No you may not." His mother said sternly, "You need the exercise; the amount of magikarp you got through yesterday quite frankly doesn't bear thinking about." Squeak scowled at her and dived into the water disappearing below its surface causing ripples to spread out over the surface of the lake. Squeak's mother lowered herself into the lake before rolling onto her front and looking around at him.

"You can climb on now if you want." She told him. Snivy didn't hesitate. The sooner he got off this island, back to the mainland and away from the Piplup then the better. Taking great care he stepped off the rocks and onto the penguin's back. It wasn't easy to get a good grip on the feathers as they were wet and hence very slippery so he put both his hands on the golden crown on her head instead, hoping he'd be able to keep hold of it as she swam.

"I'm on." Snivy called to her.

"Hold on tight." She said kindly and with that, she pushed off from the rock and floated along the water across the lake, leaving the island and the playing Piplup behind them. Snivy risked a glance over the shoulder of Squeak's mother into the water. The water was crystal clear and at the bottom of the lake he thought he could see a funny kind of orange and white fish floating around on the bed of the lake but he wasn't sure.

"What's your name?" Snivy addressed Squeak's mother again.

"My name?" laughed the penguin, "Oh goodness me I never did introduce myself did I? I'm Empoleon. Most of us end up being called as our species but we couldn't resist naming Squeak something else. He was so cute when he was a little egg." Empoleon fell silent and Snivy assumed she was reminiscing. They were crossing the lake at some speed now, so Snivy had to be careful to hold on to the crown so he didn't tumble into the lake. He could now fully appreciate the scale of the lake. The rocky island where he had washed up was now smaller than a mole hill on the other side of the lake and the caves and ledges along the edge of the lake were becoming larger as they approached them. Eventually Empoleon slowed down and climbed onto a ledge just in front of them. Snivy slid from her back and landed on the ground with a small thump. Empoleon shook herself off as she returned to her full height and inhaled deeply. Snivy suddenly realised how hungry he was and he took a deep breath. He could smell cooking fish wafting from the cave. Although he didn't normally eat meat at all, at that moment he was so hungry he could've eaten anything.

"Mum, Prinny won't give me any fish!" Squeak exploded from the cave. Snivy assumed that he had arrived some time ago, "Tell him to give me some fish."

"You know your brother doesn't like being called Prinny." Empoleon said coolly, "Now you just wait a minute, chances are he hasn't even finished cooking yet, no being impatient." Squeak let out a long exasperated groan and turned around to waddle back into the cave, "Oh yes, and tell your brother that we need an extra place around the table, we've got a visitor." Squeak's eyes lit up as they fell on Snivy again but he turned about without another word and skipped off into the cave. Empoleon bent down to speak to Snivy.

"May I inquire as to what your name is?" she asked gently

"My name is Snivy." Snivy told her, glancing right at the mouth of the cave but there was no sign of Squeak.

"And what type of Pokémon are you? I don't think I've ever seen a Pokémon like you in this area before. Are you a Bellsprout?"

"No. I'm a Snivy." Snivy told her looking into her eyes. Empoleon frowned.

"There's no such thing as a Snivy." She told him calmly, "I'm not stupid, now what kind of Pokémon are you?"

"I don't think he's from around here." Squeak's head appeared back around the cave entrance, he was still carrying the large book that Snivy had seen him with back on the rock island, "He's not in the native and foreign Pokémon species guidebook! I've been checking, we can't find anything that looks even vaguely like him." Empoleon crossed the platform to meet her son in the cave entrance. Squeak opened the large book and began rifling excitedly through its pages. Empoleon was glancing over each page as he turned it occasionally glancing up at Snivy as he stood shivering on the platform.

"Mum." The head of another Penguin appeared around the cave entrance but this one was different again, dark blue with yellow decoration around his head and white patches on his body, "The Goldeen's finished Mum and it's getting cold and what's this about an extra guest?" His eyes fell on Snivy, "Friend of Squeak's?"

"That remains to be confirmed." Empoleon looked up from the book, "I'll carry on looking at this during breakfast. For now we'd better get inside before the fish gets cold, no one wants that! Snivy, can I leave you with Squeak for now? I'm going to help Prince lay the table." Squeak looked as though he thought Christmas had come early.

"Of course Mum!" he said enthusiastically. Empoleon and Prince disappeared back into the cave. Snivy still stood there shivering, "So your name is Snivy?" asked Squeak bounding across the platform towards him. Snivy nodded but didn't say anything, "I'm Squeak. Here, I'll show you my room while mum and Prinny…sorry… 'Prince' get the food ready. Follow me." Squeak hopped onto the next ledge and Snivy had no choice but to follow him up, cambering onto the next ledge up on the small cliff and disturbing a group of birds with large blue and white wings, the likes of which Snivy had never seen before in his life. Squeak reached a small opening in the rock and squeezed through it disappearing into the darkness. Snivy hesitated looking after the Piplup then up at the lush green forest. How easy it would be to get into that forest and try to find out more but then again, he wasn't going to get food if he ran off and Empoleon seemed very kind towards him.

"Are you coming?" Piplup's head appeared through the crack and Snivy picked himself up, squeezing through the gap in the rock after Piplup. Everything went eerily quiet when he stepped into the cave. It was quite dark and there was water running down the ceiling and dripping onto the floor echoing around the passage, "Come on!" Snivy heard Squeak's voice from somewhere just out of sight down the end of the passageway. Tentatively Snivy began to edge down the passageway and eventually it widened out before opening into a large room. Snivy stepped inside and looked around. The room was quite small, The left wall was completely open though with balcony style railings made from sticks fastened together running across it, revealing a much larger cave. Squeak's bed was quite small and was standing in the corner with a desk beside it upon which a candle was flickering. There was a bookshelf standing against the right wall though it didn't contain many books. There was a poster of a large black Pokémon on the wall though Snivy couldn't see it very well through the darkness. Squeak lit another candle on top of the bookshelf so Snivy could see slightly better. The balcony Snivy had seen opened out to reveal a larger cave which was brightly lit by several candles and a large roaring fire on the floor. Looking over it, Snivy could just about see Empoleon and Squeak's brother Prince moving around a table silhouetted against the light from the fire.

"It's not much." Squeak said modestly, looking at Snivy as though waiting for a reaction, "But the entrance to it is so small that Prinny can't fit through it. I can take a shortcut down here by taking the slide. He opened part of the balcony to reveal a large stone slide leading down to the floor.

"I…I like it." Snivy looked around the room again, "It's nothing like where I live."

"Where do you live?" Squeak sat down on his bed and he patted the sheets beside him to indicate to Snivy that he could do the same, "Do you live around Twinleaf town or Sandgem or somewhere further away?"

"Err…" Snivy sat down on the bed beside Squeak and looked at him, "I live in Nuvema town, you wouldn't know how to get back there would you?"

"Nuvema town?" Squeak asked frowning, "I've never heard of it. Here, have a look at this…" Squeak reached for a thin green book on the bookshelf which was labelled simply 'ATLAS' and pulled it onto his lap before opening it. Snivy leant over his shoulder so he could see the pages by the light of the candles. Squeak had opened the Atlas roughly in the middle to reveal a large double page spread of a map. The map was headed

'_SINNOH – mountainous land of the temporal, spacial and renegade. God Within._'

Snivy looked over the map trying to pick out a place he recognised but he couldn't see a single town on the map he recognised. At the northernmost point of the map was a place labelled 'Snowpoint City'. Snivy hadn't heard of a single place on this map.

"Which of these cities is closest to your house?" Squeak asked him.

"I haven't heard of any of these towns." Snivy admitted looking over the map again and again, trying to pick out places he knew.

"Not any of them?" Squeak sounded amazed but he didn't sound as though he doubted him for an instant, "Do you think you live outside of Sinnoh?"

"I've never heard of Sinnoh." Snivy said gloomily feeling really stupid as he looked over the map, "Not once." Squeak's eyes had opened really wide, wide in a kind of admiration as he looked over Snivy.

"You must be from other places then!" Squeak put both his flippers on the book and began flipping through the pages until he came to rest on another double page map of a completely different looking map which was very flat with one mountain on the edge of it. The title above the map read

'_JOHTO – Land of justice and high flying. Castle Palace … Recent discoveries have hinted at the presence of a world outside of SINNOH a long way over the oceans and now we have succeeded in mapping out the basic layout of the JOHTO region.' _

Squeak looked up at Snivy expectantly, his hands still on the Atlas. Snivy looked down over the map though he knew that the fact the name Johto meant absolutely nothing to him didn't bode well. Indeed sure enough Snivy had never heard of a single place on the map. Goldenrod City, Olivine City…Snivy had never even heard of any of it. Squeak's eyes were open very wide and the light of the candles was glinting off them making them look full of mystery and wonder. Snivy looked up at him and shook his head. Enthusiastically Squeak rifled through a few more pages of the atlas eventually stopping on another double page spread displaying one final map.

'_HOENN – Land of the Earth, Sea and Sky. Rich Relationship…Relatively little is known about this land but part of it has been mapped thanks to anonymous volunteers'_

Snivy shook his head in bewilderment looking up at Squeak who wasted no time in quickly finding another large map.

'_KANTO – Land of sparks, ice and fire… Very little is known but apparently accessible from part of JOHTO.'_

Snivy said nothing but shook his head a last time. Squeak's eyes were wide in fascination and admiration as he gently closed the atlas on his lap. For a second he did nothing except look at Snivy with wonder. Snivy found himself doing something he hadn't done since the appearance of the mysterious disc and tunnel. He was smiling softly at his friend's amazement.

"You mean that you're from new places, places which aren't in the atlas?" Squeak eventually found words, looking at his new friend in awe, "Where are you from then?" Snivy considered.

"I'm from Unova." He said at last.

"Unova?" asked Squeak, "Where's Unova in relation to here?"

"I've no idea." Snivy shook his head, "I'm guessing that that's not where I am then."

"Of course not, this is Sinnoh." Squeak told him still looking awe-struck, "I guess this is why you didn't know who any of the Pokémon we saw out on Lake Verity were? So do you not get Piplups in Unova?" Snivy shook his head.

"I haven't explored the whole of Unova." He told Squeak, "But there are loads of Pokémon there. I've got a friend who's a Purrloin except I think she might be lost here too."

"Purrloin?" asked Squeak, "What's Purrloin?"

"Squeak! Snivy!" Snivy suddenly heard Empoleon's voice calling them from over the balcony. Still looking slightly dazed, Squeak jumped off the bed and crossed to the balcony, Snivy jumped to his feet and followed him hastily. Empoleon was looking up at them from the floor where the smell of fish was drifting up to them again and Snivy could see Prince sat at the table waiting for them, "Dinner's ready! Oh yes and could I have a quick word with Snivy?"

"You…you're not going to believe this Mum!" Squeak yelled down to her from the balcony.

"Come down here Squeak, I can't hear you very well from up there." Empoleon called to them, "I'm sure you and Snivy have a lot you want to discuss." She walked towards the table. Squeak crossed the room to the other end of the balcony and opened the gate onto the steep looking slide leading down to the bottom of the cave where Empoleon and Prince were waiting for them. Squeak looked down the slide and then at Snivy who was still eyeing the slide apprehensively. Snivy didn't like the look of the slide in the slightest, it looked steep and dangerous. Touching mysterious spinning discs had seemed no problem to him but then again look where touching a mysterious spinning disc had got him. He had ended up in a place where the Pokémon there had never even heard of Unova or any of the Pokémon who lived there. A place called Sinnoh.

"Do you want to go first?" Squeak asked him, standing aside so that he could reach the slide. Snivy didn't move, "Oh come on, it's really quite easy when you get used to it." Snivy stepped up to the top of the slide and sat down at the top but before he could even brace himself to release the top of the slide, Squeak had given him an almighty push up the back with his flippers and he slipped off the edge and onto the slide. The slide was more slippery than it had looked. It curved around the edge of the cave round and round all the way to the floor. Snivy flew up the edges of the slide at the corners as it curved around the wall until he couldn't help but enjoy himself as the wind blew through the leaves around his neck and it was really quite exhilarating! Eventually he shot off the bottom of the slide to land in a heap on the floor. He barely had time to right himself before Squeak came skimming off the end of the slide after him and crashed into him hard, knocking him to the floor the two of them rolled over but Snivy found himself laughing.

"How many times do I have to tell you to check the end of the slide before you go Squeak?" Empoleon looked disapproving of the spectacle, "Now come and sit up the table before your fish gets cold." Squeak helped Snivy to his feet.

"You can sit next to me!" he said enthusiastically hurrying across the room to take his place at the table opposite Prince. Snivy joined him opposite Empoleon. Empoleon had placed a large plate of what appeared to be dark green grass in front of him.

"It's sugared kasib berry shoots." She explained, "I guessed you wouldn't like fish but if you…" But Snivy was already snatching up mouthful upon mouthful of delicious shoots and swallowing them whole. He felt as though he hadn't had breakfast for years. Empoleon smiled at him.

"So you were going to tell me something?" she directed this question to her son who was also tucking into his fish.

"What? Oh yes…it's about Snivy, we were looking through the atlas to try and figure out where about he came from."

"Oh right." Empoleon snapped down a large piece of fish in her beak.

"He's not from Sinnoh." Squeak told his family excitedly.

"Well as he's not in the guidebook that's hardly a surprise." Prince said snidely.

"Not only that…" Squeak lowered his voice, "He's not from Johto or Kanto or Hoenn either! He isn't from any known island at all!" Snivy who was still stuffing himself full of shoots continued to listen to the conversation but couldn't stop himself from eating the shoots. Empoleon removed the fish from her mouth and laid it down on the table.

"What do you mean he isn't from a known island?"

"He's from … Winona." Squeak said mysteriously looking around to see what effect this would have on his family. Snivy choked on his shoots.

"Unova, not Winona." He told him between mouthfuls of shoots, "Unova."

"Sorry." Squeak blushed red and smiled sheepishly, "The thing is, Unova isn't even in the atlas, it's not in the new discoveries and finds section, it's not mapped and no one's EVER been there!" Empoleon frowned slightly as she looked over Snivy again who had easily eaten his way through half the shoots by now.

"Slow down!" she told him with a smile, "You'll make yourself sick if you eat them that quickly! Well…" she turned back to face Squeak, "I've finished skirting through your guidebook and I believe that you're right, there is absolutely nothing in there even vaguely resembling Snivy, yet…how can it be true? It seems so impossible. How can there be a place called Unova? No one's ever been there, no one's ever heard of it an there haven't been any suggestions in any form about its existence yet apart from Snivy. Yet where else could Snivy have come from?"

"Besides even if Snivy did happen to come from a completely new region how did he manage to get here when we haven't had anyone else from his place visit our place before?" Prince asked dubiously. Snivy looked up from his shoots, which were mostly gone by now and across the table to where Empoleon and Prince were watching him expectantly. Snivy looked around at Squeak who was also watching him.

"How did you get here?" he asked quietly and once again there was that look of awe and admiration in his eyes. Snivy told them. He told them how it had just been a normal morning, he told them about Purrloin and how she'd heard a mysterious noise which turned out to be some kind of portal. He told them about his plummet from the sky as the portal shattered around him and how he had fallen for miles before landing in the lake broke his fall and saved his life. He had obviously washed up on the rocky island and the next thing he knew…By the time he had finished the sun had risen in the sky and the day was clear yet still rather cold, light flooding in through the mouth of the cave. Squeak's cold, unfinished fish lay in the bottom of his bowl as its owner gaped at the Pokémon sat beside him incredulously. Prince was looking slightly dumbfounded although Snivy suspected that he was probably a lot more shocked than he was letting on. Empoleon was looking slightly ashen faced.

"You poor thing." She whispered quietly, "You poor, poor thing."

"I don't know how to get back to Nuvema where I live," Snivy explained, "And I don't know any of the cities or towns in Sinnoh and I don't know who to talk to or who to avoid or what to do…" Snivy found his voice trailing off and he couldn't continue.

"So you didn't come here alone?" asked Prince, "You came here with a Purr…Purr-something and you got split up and you suspect that this…err…companion is in Sinnoh somewhere but you've no idea where?" Snivy nodded, he didn't much fancy talking about Purrloin right now, it made him feel immensely guilty, and how was he to know that she hadn't fallen in the middle of the desolate ocean way out to sea or hadn't been lucky enough to have something like a lake break her fall? Was she even in Sinnoh or was she in one of the other places Squeak had been telling him about?

"I don't know what to do." Empoleon sat back in her chair and folded her flippers, looking slightly distressed, "You must really want to find your friend and yet you must want to go home and no one else even knows Unova exists…Oh you poor thing."

"Snivy can stay with us for now can't he Mum?" Squeak sounded slightly alarmed as he said this.

"Well…he can't stay with us forever Squeak." Empoleon said quickly, "He has to get back to Unova."

"But for now!" Squeak insisted, "Please can he stay with us! Please?"

"Of course he can." Empoleon smiled warmly at Snivy, "He's very welcome to stay with us but eventually we've got to find him a way of getting back to where he came from. It can't be very comfortable here for him, he doesn't know anything about Sinnoh or the other Pokémon you find here."

"What I want to know," Prince Spoke up from across the table, "Is how that portal opened up and how it sucked you in and spat you out back here."

"I've no idea." Snivy shook his head, "I think I'd like to know that too."

"Squeak, do you want to take charge of Snivy for now?" asked Empoleon, "Me and Prince are going to try and discuss what we're going to do to help him and perhaps spread news about the existence of Unova?"

"Of course!" Squeak said ever enthusiastically, "Let's go back to my room." Squeak jumped down from the table and hurried towards the cave exit. Snivy followed him quickly, casting a glance over his shoulder at Prince and Empoleon as he left.

"What do we do Prince?" groaned Empoleon, "What do we do?"

"Come on." Squeak's voice pulled Snivy back to him and they once again clambered up the rocks to the small opening that Snivy recognised as Squeak's bedroom. It was much lighter inside the tunnel now that the sun was high in the sky and as a result Squeak's bedroom was also much brighter. Squeak hastened in, shut the door at the top of the slide and jumped back onto the bed with an ominous creaking noise. He let out all his breath. Snivy looked at the bookshelf where Squeak had propped the atlas and the immensely thick 'species guidebook' that he'd been looking through earlier. Looking further around the room Snivy's eyes fell once again on the poster above Squeak's bed which earlier had been consumed by darkness and now he could see the Pokémon depicted clearly in the shaft of sunlight seeping through from the cave entrance. He yelled out loud out in surprise. Squeak practically jumped out of his skin and sat bolt upright on his bed.

"Are you alright?" he asked quickly, looking at Snivy but Snivy barely heard him. His eyes were fixed on the poster. A malevolent looking black face stared out at him, white smoke concealing one of its blue eyes and surrounded by black smoke. The face was much larger than it had been on the wanted poster on the tree trunk, which seemed to make it twice as threatening yet there was no mistaking the terrifying face of the nightmare Pokémon Darkrai glaring at him across the room.

"That's…that's Darkrai." Snivy swallowed. Squeak looked around to see what Snivy was staring at.

"That's right." He said proudly, "And look, I managed to get it signed! Isn't that brilliant?"

"What…what do you mean signed?" Snivy asked in amazement his eyes swivelling from the huge photograph of Darkrai of the ghost forces to rest on Squeak's proud looking face.

"Come and have a look." Squeak beckoned him over. Snivy still slightly shaken by having Darkrai flung on him like this crossed the room and collapsed onto the bed kneeling up to stand beside Squeak. Squeak placed his finger to the bottom of the picture and Snivy noticed for the first time a spiky slanting signature in silver ink reading '_**Happy Birthday Squeak and good luck with your sticker collection! Darkrai of the Ghost Forces'**_.

"But…but…" Snivy didn't understand, "But…how did you…why didn't you…"

"Are you alright?" asked Squeak looking deeply concerned.

"Darkrai's a wanted criminal." Snivy came out with it, looking horrified, "Wanted for crimes against some random legendary dragons no one's ever heard of, Digala or something like that and they're offering millions of Poke for him dead and billions for him bought in alive along with the best rewards anyone could hope for. He's one of the most wanted criminals around! How can you have a signed poster of him in your bedroom? Why didn't you hand him in?" Squeak was so taken aback by this information he had backed up against the wall. He looked completely dumfounded.

"What?" he looked bewildered.

"Darkrai and the ghost forces are all wanted criminals, all of them, with dead or alive notices pinned up everywhere because they threatened some dragons like Dialga, Palkia some other random dragons and almost ruined them completely. Everyone's after them." Snivy explained exasperatedly.

"But…but…" spluttered Squeak, "That's impossible. The ghost forces, especially Darkrai are everyone's idols, they're our Heroes. They've had nothing to do with any of our legendries, they've made it explicitly clear that they want nothing to do with them and none of us have heard anything about the legendries being threatened at all, let alone our own Palkia, Dialga and Giratina."

"Of course they wouldn't threaten Giratina." Snivy said quickly, "She's on the ghost forces." Squeak shook his head.

"No one's seen Giratina or any of the legendries apart from Darkrai for years and years. I think that if Giratina was part of the ghost forces then we'd know about it."

"Then how come there are posters of her being in the ghost forces all over Unova?"

"I…I don't know."

"And how come there are wanted dead or alive posters of Darkrai and the rest of the ghost forces all over Unova?"

"I…I don't know. There can't be, how can your people know more about our ghost forces than we do when they don't even know Sinnoh exists? Unless of course…" Squeak stopped dead, the ends of his blue flippers went slightly white.

"Are you alright?" Snivy asked quickly, "Unless of course what?" Squeak didn't speak. He just sat there leaning against the rocky wall staring into space below the poster of Darkrai his eyes shining with that same air of mystery and wonder.

"Unless…no, you can't…I'm sorry…" Squeak seemed to pull himself together.

"What?" asked Snivy desperately, "What?"

"Unless…unless you…unless you're from the future." Squeak finished at last looking up into Snivy's large brown eyes. The two of them remained silent for a long time, simply looking at each other. The longer they stared at each other the more likely the idea became and the more likely the idea became the more certain they felt.

"So…instead of just being transported to Sinnoh by that weird portal I've gone back in time?" Snivy could barely believe it himself. He had never believed in time travel, which was something restricted to Munna. To think that he, Snivy, had just been transported goodness knows how far through time to a place he didn't know was nearly impossible, yet it was possible. It had to be.

"It's amazing!" Squeak concluded with the same reverence in his eyes that Snivy had seen earlier, "It's truly amazing, let's go and tell mum…"

"No!" Snivy yelped catching his friend as he was halfway to the door leading to the long slide.

"Why not?" Squeak asked curiously, cocking his head onto one side.

"Empoleon's got enough on her plate without this as well." Snivy said quickly, "And besides, I just don't think it's a good idea if everyone goes around Sinnoh knowing that there's a Pokémon around from a different place and not only that a Pokémon from the future, I don't think that that's a very good thing to happen."

"I think I see your point." Squeak stepped back from the door and returned to sit on his bed, Snivy following quickly, "What do we do then? It's one thing trying to get you back to Unova but trying to get you back into the future…" Snivy nodded. It seemed impossible. Maybe with the right help if every effort was put into it he might end up back in Unova, but there was no way he was going to be able to return to the future without some kind of legendary Pokémon that no one had seen for centuries and who was probably not about to unleash the full extent of its powers to help a poor lost Snivy get home. Snivy glanced left at the picture of Darkrai again. For some reason it looked different to the Darkrai he'd seen in the wanted poster back home. The Darkrai he'd seen back home had been glaring quite deliberately and looked strained and exhausted whereas the Darkrai he was looking upon now looked relaxed and, now that Snivy looked closer, he was smiling.

"I guess Darkrai could help us if we could get to him." Squeak offered tentatively, "I mean, he's meant to be wise and powerful beyond limit."

"There's no way Darkrai would talk to us." Snivy waved the idea aside, "and besides, Empoleon would never let us go like that, especially you." Squeak nodded glumly and he too looked up at Darkrai's poster."

"Mum would never let me go." He nodded, "But if it came down to it I would help you, you know I would."

"I couldn't ask you to!" Snivy said horrified, "What…"

"You're my friend." Squeak reassured him, "And besides you can't go wandering off alone around Sinnoh! You don't know anything about the cities, the layout, the Pokémon…you'd be finished or abducted or something very soon and I don't want that to happen." Snivy looked down at the rocky floor of the cavern. He'd never had many friends back in Unova. The extent of his friendships had been to Purrloin. He had hated the Patrats, the Lillipups, the Panpour and he had waved aside the Munna whenever it had tried to talk to him. He realised only now that he'd been rather unpopular. He felt very strongly about Squeak being his friend, he appreciated it more than anything else in his life at that moment. Squeak was helping him.

"So what shall we do now?" asked Snivy trying to put this rush of emotion towards his new best friend towards the back of his mind. Squeak shook himself, took one last glance at the poster on the wall and reached for the bookshelf. He found a book with a red cover and laid it on the bed. Snivy leant over his shoulder.

"This is my sticker book." Squeak said with a bold attempt at his old enthusiasm and jollity, "It's got all the Pokémon from here and beyond in it although probably not the ones you find in Unova."

"Brilliant!" and soon the mood of gloom and confusion had evaporated and the two of them were pouring over the sticker book looking at each Pokémon in turn and laughing when they saw particularly funny looking ones. Squeak seemed immensely proud of his Kyogre sticker which was on a page all of its own which was apparently the legendary water Pokémon of Hoenn.

"Kyogre is really rare!" he announced proudly, "Prince got one in his pack of stickers but I…ahem…borrowed it before he knew it was there! Oh yeah!" he plunged his flippers into the desk drawer and withdrew two packets of what appeared to be cards but Snivy quickly realised they were large square stickers, "Here, I forgot I had these…" he tossed a packet to Snivy who tore the wrapping off eagerly. A pile of five stickers fell onto his lap and he gathered them up. The sticker on top depicted a small grey bird which looked a lot like a Pidove with a black curl of feathers on top of its head. Squeak leaned over to see what he had go and let out a groan.

"Starly." He said in a depressed voice, "I've got about a million Starlys. He took the sticker from Snivy and tossed it back into the desk drawer. Snivy looked at the next one which depicted what appeared to be a small blue scorpion.

"What's this one?" he asked curiously

"Ooo! Do I have Skorupi?" Squeak grabbed the sticker book and flicked through its pages, "Blow! I got him last week! Sorry." He took the sticker and threw it into the drawer with the Starly. The next two stickers turned out to be a bug type Pokémon called Weedle which Squeak discarded with disgust and a flying steel type called Skarmory which Squeak declared as quite unusual but it ended up in the drawer as he already had about twenty. The last sticker fell onto Snivy's lap and he picked it up. It depicted quite a frightening looking violet coloured Pokémon with a long violet tail and a pale indigo body and a menacing looking frown on its face.

"What's this one?" Snivy asked. Squeak leant over casually to look at the card and gave a yelp, he jumped off the bed and the sticker book and the stickers he'd been opening all cascaded to the floor but this didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. He looked as though it was the greatest day of his life. He took the card out of Snivy's hands and began dancing around the room and flapping his wings.

"MEWTWO!" he bellowed leaping into the air and landing on one foot, "Mewtwo! These are literally the rarest stickers EVER! They only ever gave out about a hundred of these ever! PRINNY!" He had darted over to the balcony and stood there dancing about behind the railings. Snivy saw Prince look around and stare up at his little brother.

"What?" he called up with distaste in his voice. Snivy supposed that he had got used to being called 'Prinny' by now. Squeak threw open the gate and jumped onto the slide, sliding down on his belly. Nervously, Snivy followed him but being sure to lie back slightly so he didn't hurt himself at the end of the slide. The slide was just as breath-taking the second time as it had been the first time and in no time at all he had come off the end to stand at the bottom. Squeak was dancing round and round Prince waving the Mewtwo sticker in front of his face. Prince looked absolutely furious.

"I got Mewtwo!" he trilled, "Snivy was opening the stickers I got yesterday and Mewtwo fell out!"

"I've been after Mewtwo for ages!" Prince looked furious and sincerely jealous, "It's just not fair!" But Snivy just continued dancing and singing, waving the Mewtwo sticker around his head and relishing in his brother's fury and anguish and Snivy found himself laughing along and thinking for the first time since he'd arrived that maybe he was actually happy here, maybe even happier…


	3. The Attack Begins

**Chapter Three – The Attack Begins**

Snivy spent the rest of the day out on the rocks with Squeak and Prince where Squeak wasted no time in showing Snivy his best dives and splashing techniques, throwing in as many subtle '_I got Mewtwo and you didn't'_ hints as he possibly could as he did so, which irritated Prince so much that he went inside to speak to Empoleon about it, much to Squeak's satisfaction. Snivy didn't much fancy the water, so he sat back on the bank and laughed at Squeak's jokes as he played. Empoleon came out to find them only when the sun was starting to sink low on the horizon bathing the water in orange light and the shadows across the cliffs began to lengthen significantly.

"It's almost night time you two! You should come in now." She said slightly sternly, "You'll both catch cold."

"Alright mum." Squeak groaned gloomily, "What's for dinner?"

"Magikarp." His mum said.

"Again?" Squeak groaned, "But we had Magikarp for breakfast this morning, and besides Snivy's here as a guest."

"You can have pecha berry soup with him if you want." Empoleon said raising her eyebrows.

"Err…magikarp's good with me." Squeak nodded awkwardly, "Come on Snivy." They left for the house as fast as possible, Squeak slipping on the rocks his feathers showing everything in sight with spray. They entered the cave and Snivy noticed that it was lit by a large fire in the centre which was smoking gently on the floor, casting dancing shadows around the walls. Squeak hurried ahead and seated himself in the usual place around the table, and waited for Snivy to join him on his right hand side. Empoleon served up Magikarp for Squeak and placed an appetising looking bowl of pink soup in front of Snivy, who sniffed it and began to drink it quickly, dipping his long mouth into the bowl. Squeak grinned at him, watching him carefully as he did so. They finished the meal mostly in silence; Snivy and Squeak were both completely shattered from the day they'd spent out by the lake so didn't talk much. After the meal was finished, the two of them headed upstairs, out by the rocks and into the dark passage way. There was a large green blanket spread on top of the railings and Snivy assumed that Empoleon had partly climbed the slide and rested it there for him. He removed it and laid it down on the floor, settling himself down on it and glancing up one last time and the huge black poster on the wall and at Squeak.

"Night…night Snivy." His friend yawned.

"Night Squeak." Snivy told him and feeling warm and comfortable he rolled over and had soon drifted off to sleep.

"Wake up! Snivy wake up!" a voice was screaming from somewhere to his left, a desperate panicked voice, "Snivy please!" Snivy jerked upright. Something had changed. There were screams coming from outside the cave. It clearly wasn't morning but there were orange lights dancing around the cave, casting menacing shadows over the walls and floor.

"What…what's going on?" The screaming was getting louder, there were crackling sounds now as well. The orange light occasionally fell across Squeak's panic stricken face, his eyes shining with terror. Someone screamed outside the cave.

"Search them all!" Snivy heard a cold, grating unfamiliar voice yell. There were lights on the tunnel wall now and hurried footsteps, funny hissing noises.

"What do we do?" Squeak gasped, tears of fright rolling down his face.

"This way!" Snivy dived for the slide and Squeak quickly followed suit. They slid away down the dizzying slide right to the bottom where they righted themselves instantly. Snivy noticed that Squeak had his sticker book tucked under his arm and was gripping it very tightly as though it were some kind of shield.

"There's a slide here, they could have gone down!" there were shadows in Squeak's bedroom now. Snivy felt a thrill of terror as he saw the fire. He had never come into contact with it before.

"Quick!" Squeak screamed, shaking from head to foot. The two of them ran for the mouth of the cave. There was no sign of either Empoleon or Prince anywhere. As they emerged into the night, they were almost flattened. There were Pokémon running everywhere, Piplups huddling together all clueless, there were Empoleon running back and forth screaming and in the midst of them all were large Pokémon silhouetted again the darkness holding fire in their hands and making long hissing noises.

"Find him!" the cold voice screamed again, "Find him!"

"We've got to move!" Squeak yelled and he began to run, Snivy following him closely. They were nearly trampled. There were Piplups and Empoleon running everywhere, "Mum!" he screamed above the crowd, "Prince! Mum!"

"Squeak?"

"Prince!" Squeak hurried forwards and Prince came into view, the ends of his flippers white, "Hurry, they're lighting the caves!"

"Where's mum?"

"She's fine Squeak, we've got to run, you hear me?" Prince began ushering them out of the crowd, "We'll head for the forest!"

"We can't go in there!" Squeak yelped, "This area's hoothoot private property …"

"We stand more of a chance in there than we do here!" Prince screamed, "Go!"

They took off, weaving between the groups of Piplup, casting glances over their shoulders at the advancing shadows. There was a crunching sound and looking behind him, Snivy saw the whole of the front of one of the caves collapse, the cliff face crumbling into rubble. They reached the foot of the cliff and paused gasping for breath before beginning to climb. Several times Snivy slipped on the wet rocks but Prince steadied him and helped him off, Squeak darting ahead up the cliff for the protective cover of the forest. There were clearly many others with the same idea, many Piplup were already visible at the forest's edge, though they looked nervous to enter. Some Empoleon were trying to convince them to enter the trees.

"This way! They're coming up the cliff!" Prince yelped and one glance over his shoulder told Snivy that he was right. He could see one of the mysterious Pokémon more clearly now, outlined by the fire, with four legs. It was moving with surprising speed, considering its significant bulk. Without a second look, Squeak, Prince and Snivy hastened into the forest, ducking tree branches as they ran. The further they ran, the fainter the screams and crashes behind them in the Piplup village became until they could only see a faint orange glow through the trees. The three of them slowed to a hault, gasping for breath.

"I…I think we've lost them." Prince gasped, holding his side. They waited there for one more minute until there was a rustling in the trees somewhere just ahead of them, followed by a loud clunking noise.

"What was that?" Snivy whispered.

"Quick!" Prince took off again, weaving through the trees until it was almost pitch black, only the moon throwing light over the leaf strewn ground. They drew to a hault again a few minutes later and let out their breath for the second time.

"I…are we safe?" asked Squeak

"I…I think so." Prince mopped his brow and leant back against the nearest tree which swayed slightly and without warning a large ruffled looking bird tumbled from its top and landed with a soft thud on the floor. Snivy couldn't see it clearly through the darkness but it appeared to have large circles around its eyes, "Oh I do beg your pardon…" Prince said hastily, but it was too late.

"HOOT!" the bird erupted furiously, "HOOT HOOT HOOT HOOT!"

"Please be quiet!" Prince insisted worriedly, casting looks over his shoulder as the Hoothoot's cries echoed between the trees, but the Hoothoot was not to be silenced.

"You can't HOOT shush me HOOT!" it erupted with indignation, "I can jolly HOOT well hoot when I want to HOOT."

"Please!" Squeak pleaded but the Hoothoot wasn't having it.

"HOOT!" it screeched as though just for the sake of it, "HOOT HOOT HOOT!"

"We can't hang around." Prince shook his head, "Come on." And with the irate Hoothoot's cries echoing behind them and the muffled clanking sounds becoming louder again they set back off into the night.


	4. The Stone

Chapter 4 – The Stone

Snivy had very little recollection of the events of the previous night when he woke up the next morning, curled up beneath a tree alongside Squeak and Prince. The sun was filtering through the branches above them, dappling the ground with patches of sunlight. Somewhere to his left, Snivy could see what appeared to be a long pink caterpillar crawling over some leaves.

"Squeak, are…are you awake?" Snivy asked.

"Snivy!" Squeak sat up as though startled, "Where are we? What…oh." The events of the previous night returned to him and Snivy saw the look of hope in his eyes die as quickly as it had appeared, "Prince! Prince get up!"

"Huh?" Prince stirred and sat up, getting his bearings before rising to his feet and looking around.

"What do we do?" Have they gone?" Squeak leapt to his feet too and began pulling the end of his brother's wing hard.

"I…yeah, I reckon so." He looked around, "Is Snivy alright?"

"I'm fine." Snivy told him, "What were they?"

"I'm not sure." Prince frowned, "I have my suspicions but…we ought to get back to the village now, see what's happened."

"Where about are we?" Squeak asked, looking around the trees, "We ran a long way."

Err…good point." Prince looked around. All the trees seemed the same, and there was no way of telling which way they'd come from. Snivy noticed that both Squeak and Prince seemed rather jumpy, maybe because they knew that if a large number of grass Pokémon attacked them then they'd have little or no chance.

"Wait!" Squeak announced and pulled out the large sticker book still tucked under his arm.

"Squeak now?" Prince couldn't help but sound exasperated

"Look." Squeak seized the small pink caterpillar and held it up, "This is a wurmple, you only find these near Sandgem town I think, we've run almost all the way through the forest." Snivy and Prince both bent over to look. In the space beneath a large sticker reading 'Wurmple' was a squashed looking map, with green highlighting to show where I was found.

"Do you mind?" the Wurmple said irritably and Squeak hastily replaced it in the bushes where it quickly vanished from sight.

"Okay, we should head north then." Prince glanced up at the sky and spotted the tip of the large mountain sticking out above the trees, "Follow me."

They set off again, moving between the trees until they emerged into a large village clearing, leaving the Hoothoot forest behind them. The cl contained many small houses and Snivy could see many small brown Pokémon bustling busily around it, and many small grey birds mocking them from the treetops.

"You two wait here." Prince told them, "I'm going to ask for directions. We don't come out here very often."

"Alright." Squeak told him and the two of them watched Prince out of sight then, "Come on, this way!"

"Prince said…"

"Oh that's just Prinny and besides, we're not going far! There's a lovely beach down this way, I'll show you." Slightly tentatively, Snivy followed Squeak as he ran down a thin path onto the most beautiful sandy beach Snivy had ever seen. Squeak ran ahead and collapsed on the bay, breathing deeply. Snivy sat down beside him, straightening out his tail.

"Do you have beaches in Unova?" Squeak asked him, looking over

"Yeah!" Snivy was delighted to actually be able to answer a question, "There's this big town called Undella, and it's surrounded by beaches, it's like a holiday resort!"

"Cool!" Squeak sounded impressed, "We don't have anything like…hey! Look over there!" Snivy turned around to follow where Squeak was pointing and saw squashed beneath a rock what appeared to be something glowing. The two of them scrambled upright and crossed the beach to the rock.

"Let me." Snivy reached into the gap with his nimble hands and withdrew what appeared to be a small purple stone which was glowing gently in the sunlight. Squeak leant over to have a look and gasped.

"Cool! What do you reckon it is?"

"No idea." Snivy turned the tone over but it was completely unmarked aside from a small chip in the corner. It was a neat hexagon. The two of them looked at each other in curiosity.

"Squeak! Squeak where are you?"

"God, Prinny." Squeak whispered. Snivy pushed the stone into the leaves around his neck and secured it tightly before climbing to his feet taking off across the sand in the direction of the shouting.

"I'm sorry Prince." Squeak excused himself as he reached his brother, "I was just showing Snivy some of the beach, he was curious…"

"For god's sake Squeak now isn't the time!" Prince sounded both furious and terrified, "I've just heard about the village."

"What's happened?" Squeak asked eagerly.

"It's not a laughing matter!" Prince snapped at him, his face paling, "The current death toll is counted at one hundred and fifty, over two hundred still missing."

"All…all Piplup, Prinplup and Empoleon…" Squeak's voice sounded suddenly choked

"No." Prince shook his head, shaking, "There have also been Lapras, Hoothoots and some Gyarados have also been found dead."

"What about mum?" Squeak sounded suddenly panicked

"I…I don't know." Prince shook his head shakily

"Who would do that?" Snivy gasped in horror. Prince and Squeak both looked at him and shook their heads.

"No idea." Prince whispered, "But we've got to hurry back."

They began to run back down the path in the direction of Lake Verity. There seemed to be more Pokémon around than normal, all heading in the direction of the lake but they let no one stop or hinder them as they ran the lake growing ever larger in the distance.


	5. Footprint

Chapter 5 – Footprint

"Mum where are you?" Squeak began to yell as soon as they reached the lake front and he vanished in between the crowds.

Beside Prince, Snivy pushed through the numerous unfamiliar Pokémon to the lake side but stopped dead. The lake side was almost unrecognisable. The cliffs lining it had almost completely collapsed, leaving half exposed caves, many of which had obviously been searched or raided, furniture littering their floors. The ground was scorched in many places; the trees on the edge of hoothoot clearing were also singed and dead looking. In front of the crowds was a long line of what appeared to be flowers. Prince and Snivy approached them. Each flower had a label wrapped around its stalk. Each flower bore a name and a photograph.

"Fra…Francis?" Prince gasped as he stopped beside a large red flower with a picture of a short happy looking Prinplup attached to it. Snivy looked along the line in horror. There was a large yellow tulip some distance away with a picture of what appeared to be a large blue dragon attached to it.

"I want to head back to the house…" Prince sounded deeply shaken, "See if Squeak…if Squeak's found…" But he couldn't continue. Snivy left him be and he vanished up the line of flowers looking down at each as he passed occasionally stopping and kneeling down to pay his respects.

Snivy looked about at the ruined cliffs and the raided caves then back at the flowers, feeling tears springing to his eyes. He thought for a moment back to the cold hard voice he'd heard that night.

"_Find him!"_

Him? Wasn't it odd that this massacre had taken place the night after he'd miraculously appeared from seemingly nowhere? Snivy felt as though someone was slowly filling him up with lead as he looked at the flowers.

"What do you…what do you mean you haven't…haven't found her?" came the familiar hysterical voice of Squeak from somewhere nearby, "What…what do…you mean?" Snivy felt suddenly cold all over, willing it not to be true.

"I'm very sorry." Said a firm and yet extremely gentle voice, "But Empoleon cave 34 has not been found."

"But…but she has to…has to have been found." Squeak sobbed, and Snivy forced himself to look over, "Mum…my mum…" Squeak's eyes were brimming with tears; he was stumbling as he walked.

"We're still searching the caves." The voice said again and looking right Snivy saw a tremendous Pokémon that resembled a large blue crocodile with red spikes along its back standing on its two back legs. It had an extremely gentle look in its eye, "We'll let you know as soon as she's been found."

"But Mr Feraligatr what if…what if…"

"Please Squeak, we don't know anything yet." The Feraligatr seemed to be trying its hardest to be gentle and patted Squeak, supporting him as he walked towards Snivy, "Do you have any siblings…and who's this?"

"S…Snivy…" but Squeak was hysterical and having trouble talking.

"There's Prince the Prinplup." Snivy told the Feraligatr quickly but couldn't help being intimidated.

"And what kind of Pokémon are you?" the Feraligatr asked as though out of polite curiosity but Snivy didn't want to go into all that again in any way.

"Prince has gone to cave…err…Squeak's cave I think." Snivy told him without answering.

"I see." The Feraligatr sensed that Snivy didn't want to talk and instead simply nodded.

"Where have you been staying?"

"With Squeak, Prince and Empoleon." Snivy said quickly, desperate to head to the cave and see if Prince had found anything.

"Follow me then." The Feraligatr lead the way back across the beach past more and more flowers complete with photographs, a group of twenty hoothoot gathered around one of them looking down at it sorrowfully. Snivy forced himself to keep looking straight ahead. He didn't attempt to talk to Squeak; he didn't know what to say and knew that it wasn't the time to talk about anything.

They reached Squeak's cave not five minutes later on their walk down the beach, or at least, what remained of it. The whole of the left wall was down and there were rocks filling the main living space. Snivy could just about see Prince rummaging around in the wreckage for something and he could see parts of the slide where it had remained intact on the walls. Squeak grabbed onto Feraligatr's leg and sobbed into his scales. Deciding to leave him alone, Snivy crossed the room and climbed the rock pile up to where the balcony had been half knocked down and into Squeak's bedroom. Squeak's prized poster of Darkrai had been torn up and was lying in various pieces on the floor. The draw containing all of Squeaks stickers had been pulled out and they were lying all over the floor, many of them stamped into the mud. The books were torn, very few of them left, although Snivy noticed with a little surprise that the atlas Squeak had been showing him was still perfectly intact on the bed. His heart sinking, Snivy bent down and picked up one of the torn segments of poster bearing Darkrai's signature but as he looked at it he suddenly spotted something which made his insides churn. Printed in the middle in mud as though the poster had been stamped on or driven into the ground were the remains of a large footprint nothing like Squeak, Empoleon or Princes.

Snivy looked around desperately

"Mr Feraligatr!" he yelled as loudly as he could, "Mr Feraligatr I've found something! I've found something!" He jumped back onto the rock pile and scrambled down it as quickly as he dared.

"What?" Feraligatr had crossed to the bottom of the rocks looking immensely excited. Snivy jumped the last few rocks to the bottom and pushed the poster fragment into his hand. Feraligatr took one look at it and his face paled dramatically, his eyes widening in shock. Prince had his flippers around Squeak but was looking just as upset though he was too shocked to cry.

"Follow me, all three of you." Feraligatr said suddenly sounding both firm and a little desperate, "Quickly."

Snivy, Prince and Squeak followed him from the cave but instead of crossing back along the row of flowers, they moved to speak to a large group of Empoleon, Feraligatr and other Pokémon who were talking by the water's edge and looking very official. In their midst was a smaller Pokémon with a blue head and a long blue tail.

"My Lord Azelf we've found something!" The blue Pokémon in the centre of the huddle moved forwards and the crowd parted to allow him through. He had a red gem on his forehead and there were red gems on the ends of his two tails. He had a deep concentrated look about him.

"What is it?" Azelf asked sounding anxious and he moved forwards. Feraligatr passed the poster fragment to him bearing the footprint. Azelf's reaction was almost identical to Feraligatr's. He scanned the poster fragment then he seemed to freeze with shock.

"Who's that?" Snivy couldn't help whispering up to Feraligatr, still not wanting to bother Prince or Squeak who were still obviously trying to get themselves together.

"Lord Azelf of Lake Verity, legendary psychic Pokémon." Feraligatr said quickly, not wanting to talk much, instead looking through the crowd as if waiting for Azelf to say something, "He guards the lake, if it wasn't for him, the death toll would've been much higher last night." Azelf was still looking down at the fragment in horror now the Empoleon and the others were starting to see what he was holding.

"So…this is all we have to go on?" Feraligatr asked, looking around at the others.

"It seems so." Azelf didn't take its eyes off the footprint, "But even this is…"

"I heard a voice!" Snivy blurted and all of the others spun around to face him.

"What?" asked Azelf in astonishment and he fixed Snivy with his large, penetrating eyes, and Snivy found himself quailing under the gaze of the legendary Pokémon.

"There was a voice." Snivy said weakly, "A female voice I think, she said 'Find him, search the caves' I think." The water Pokémon all looked around at each other but Azelf continued to stare down at Snivy with renewed curio.

"This is more serious than I thought." He frowned looking around at the others, "This is a metagross footprint." He let the paper fall to the floor and a gasp rose from the surrounding water Pokémon who leant in closer to examine it, "But with what Snivy has told me, I think they must have another leader, someone powerful enough to control a whole army of Metagross. I need to contact Uxie and Mespirit as soon as possible. This is a matter for the council of legends." Azelf looked back at Snivy and for a second he looked as though he were considering something very hard. He looked at Snivy and frowned in concentration then shook his head and turned back to the others.

_He knows_, thought Snivy, _He knows I'm from the future._


	6. Snivy's Decision

Chapter 6 – Snivy's decision

Azelf disappeared from the lake at around midday when a fair crowd was gathered. Squeak was speaking very little. Empoleon had still not been found though there had been at least another fifty flowers added to the end of the line of those dead. There had been a very emotional moment however as one of Squeak's friends Beaky had been pulled from the wreckage of one of the older houses badly wounded but alive and he was embraced hurriedly by his family and ushered off.

Squeak wasn't speaking to Snivy either, and Snivy wondered whether he was putting two and two together in the same way Snivy had done when he'd first arrived back at the lake. Feraligatr was speaking to Prince who was one of the eldest of the parentless Piplup and Prinplup and he was helping to organize things. The news about the footprint and the voice had spread like absolute wildfire and there were frequently large blue and white birds flying overhead, some of them carrying letters in their beaks.

"I'm sorry Squeak." Snivy had to say something, Squeak's silence was unbearable.

"It's not your fault…" Squeak assured him managing half a smile. The shock of losing Empoleon seemed to have lessened slightly.

"I think…I think it's my fault…" Snivy spluttered, deciding at last to voice his thoughts aloud to his friend.

"Nobody asked you to fall through that portal!" Squeak told him, almost cottoning onto his train of thought immediately, "Don't blame yourself." He looked out across the lake, "I just want to know who did this. I want…I want them dead." His face contorted with rage and he hurled a stone down the bank into the water, disturbing a large crowd of Magikarp gathered there.

"Do you think Prince thinks it's my fault?" asked Snivy, looking up the bank to where Prince was talking still looking slightly less proud than usual.

"I doubt it." Squeak shook his head, the ends of his flippers still clenched.

"Squeak?"

"Yeah?"

"I think that Azelf knows."

"Knows what?"

"That I'm from the future."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well…" Snivy sifted uncomfortably, "He just…it's the way he looked at me just then. He didn't have time to ask but he gave me a look. He knows that I'm not from around here."

"I suppose he is a legendary psychic Pokémon." Squeak shrugged. Snivy nodded.

"Do you want to go and check on Beaky?" he added as an afterthought, gesturing towards the Piplup curled up on a rug with his family.

"Oh!" Squeak looked around immediately and hurried off across the sand without saying goodbye to Snivy, though to be honest Snivy didn't blame him and didn't call him back.

By the end of the day Empoleon still hadn't been found, though the list of missing Pokémon had been narrowed down to only fifty. The Feraligatrs and Empoleon and the other Pokémon who Snivy had recently learned were called Blastoise were organising large mats spread across the lake side for all those who were left homeless by the incident. The many Pokémon who had been at the lake to express sorrows and regrets all offered to help and with numerous Steel and Rock types organising the blankets out the task was soon completed. Snivy settled down alongside Squeak and Prince near the water front. Snivy had been talking to Squeak more, discussing the Metagross army and the mysterious female voice that Snivy had heard calling.

"You've no idea whatsoever?" Squeak asked sounded disappointed

"I don't know Pokémon from this region." Snivy shook his head, "Besides I reckon voices aren't much to go on."

It became dark quite quickly after that, the sun sunk low on the horizon and Snivy's old fears returned to him in a flurry. What if it was his fault? What if the attackers came back that night and killed more of the others? What if this time Squeak and Prince weren't so lucky? Snivy heard Prince drift off to sleep and rolled over to look out over the lake. It was becoming quite cold now; Snivy found that he couldn't sleep at all for worry. In those moments where he was drifting off the cold voice would revisit him in his dreams and he would wake sharply until he could stand it no longer. If it was him they were after by staying here he was doing no but putting Squeak, Prince and the other inhabitants of Lake Verity in danger.

He was going to leave.

He was going to go as far away as possible where he couldn't put anyone in danger.

Maybe he could find Purrloin while he was out there.

He was going to find out who was after him, who had destroyed the village and ruined Squeak's happy life by taking Empoleon from him.

He was going to destroy them.

Then he might return.

Snivy got slowly to his feet making sure to make no noise on the sandy bay as he did so. He brushed the mat he'd been sleeping on to one side and looked about him over the sleeping lake, its surface unbroken by anything. He began to walk across the sand, past the flowers and towards the trees without looking back at Squeak and Prince the two greatest friends he'd ever had. Looking back would only make him stop. It had to be almost midnight. The moon was silhouetting the large mountain in the distance and once again Snivy thought he could've seen what appeared to be a temple on its peak. He brushed the branches aside and was about to enter the darkness of the trees when…

"Snivy? Where are you going?" Snivy almost jumped out of his skin. Standing behind him was Squeak looking curious, his large eyes wider than normal

"I…I…" Snivy didn't know what to say.

"Are…are you leaving?" Squeak suddenly looked panicked, "Don't leave me!"

"I can't stay here Squeak…" Snivy attempted to find words, "If it's me they're after then they might come back to the village and finish the rest of you off. I don't want anyone else to die because of me." Squeak looked down at the ground. He clearly saw Snivy's point. With a great effort Snivy turned away but Squeak had stopped him.

"I'm coming with you." He said firmly.

"No Squeak, I can't ask you…"

"Then don't. I'm coming. You can't do this on your own. You saw how worried Azelf was about it; he's a legendary Pokémon as well." Squeak said firmly, making sure to keep his voice down so as not to wake anybody else, "I'm just as eager to find out who's done this as you. And besides…" Squeak silenced Snivy who had opened his mouth to argue, "I'm your friend. That's what friends are for. I'm coming with you."

"What about Prince?" Snivy looked back down the beach.

"I'll leave him a note." Squeak told him, "Wait for me."

With that he took off back down the beach towards the distant figure of Prince. Snivy found himself smiling. He realised that despite the great risk that was now posed to his friend he was extremely glad to have Squeak with him. About five minutes later Squeak returned looking even more determined than before and Squeak noticed with delight that he was carrying his sticker book under his left arm as he had done the night they had fled for their lives into the forest.

"Let's go."

And with that, side by side, they set off into the unknown.


	7. On the Road to Jubilife

Chapter Seven – On the road to Jubilife

Snivy and Squeak didn't sleep all night. It took them about half an hour to return to Sandgem town after being chased by a pack of troublesome, Woobat like Pokémon, which Squeak called Zubat halfway there and getting lost off the trail. They rested in Sandgem town but were too hyped up to sleep, setting off down a track after speaking to a couple of the grey birds who Snivy now knew as Starlys and Staravia for directions.

"How much further do you suppose?" Snivy asked his friend after Sandgem town drew out of sight behind them. The first light of dawn was now starting to show above the tops of the trees, casting long shadows over the ground. He was now starting to feel tired.

"Not far I don't think." Squeak too was showing the strain. He had been continuously glancing back over his shoulder for the last ten minutes.

"Where are we heading first?"

"Jubilife city." Squeak told him yawning, "It's the nearest big town, just down this route and we'll be there."

"How about after that?"

"I don't know. Let's get to the city first and have a…" he yawned again, "Have a rest."

"Right."

They continued to walk for about five minutes when Snivy heard something oddly familiar and stopped abruptly.

"Snivy?"

"Shh!" Snivy could have sworn he'd heard an odd clunking sound, not dissimilar to the one he'd heard in the forest on the night they'd run away.

"What is it?"

"I…I can hear voices…" Snivy peered around the trees into their depths, illuminated by the dusky light cast by the dawn. Squeak crossed the path to stand beside him looking suddenly more wide awake than he usually did.

"There was a blue one…just one of those wee blue ones and you know what I did…you know what I did…"

"What?"

"I hammer armed it; stupid wee pippy thing didn't stand a chance…"

"Pippy thing?" Squeak looked suspicious, "Let's go…"

They left the path and pushed into the trees, treading as quietly as they could over the twigs and the leaves until the voices became louder and they could see in a clearing ahead two shadowy looking Pokémon. They were very large with four legs.

"What are they?" Snivy breathed in bemusement, looking left at Squeak who instantly flipped open his sticker book and began ruffling through its pages eagerly.

"Did the chief find the Pokémon the lord was looking for?"

"I don't think so."

"All that for nothing?"

"She found something though didn't she?"

"That's right. Something very odd in one of the caves, bowls of grass Pokémon food in a Piplup cave? You know how desperate the lord is, she had us search everything. In the end she took the Empoleon from the cave prisoner, to find out more…"

There was a sudden crash from behind Snivy, making him jump out of his skin. Squeak had dropped his sticker book on the floor with a loud crunching noise his eyes wide.

"What was that?" said one of the voices sharply.

"We've got to get out of here!" hissed Snivy. Squeak nodded unable to speak. Snivy picked up the book as fast as he could and the two of them ran from the trees, crashing and clunking sounds echoing behind them.

Even after they reached the path they didn't stop. They hurried on, no longer feeling tired but just desperate. They only slowed upon entering another town, with violet paved streets and a Pokecenter. There were many small blue Pokémon pacing the town, none of which Snivy recognised.

"What do we do?" Snivy panted, glancing at his friend as they stopped gasping, many blue creatures looking around at them curiously.

"They've got…they've got mum!" Squeak was horrified and his voice shook slightly but he continued to hold eyes contact with Snivy, "And by the sound of it, it was you they were after! Oh mum…"

"What are we going to do?" Snivy asked slightly desperately, "Go find Azelf, tell him what we heard?"

"We can't do that!" Squeak exclaimed shaking his head, "Who knows where Azelf's gone, it would take us months to reach the lake Acuity if that's where he's gone and besides, legendries don't like to be disturbed, everybody knows that!"

"Then what do we do?" Snivy asked, "We have to tell somebody!"

"There's only one thing for it." Squeak took on a look of fierce determination, "We've got to go for the ghost forces."

"Whoa!" the images of posters taped up all over Unova suddenly flew back to Snivy in a rush, "No way. We can't go to the ghost forces; they're listed criminals in the future!"

"I…I just can't believe it though…" Squeak shook his head, looking nervously up at Snivy, "The ghost forces, our heroes…they wouldn't go after the legendary dragons I just know they wouldn't."

"Well I just happen to come from the future!"

"Well I just happen to want my mum back, and if you hadn't have shown up none of this would've happened!" Squeak exploded angrily then his eyes widened as though he were horrified at what he had just said and he sank to the ground. Snivy just stood staring into space at the place Squeak had been standing. He felt inside him partly a strange pulsing anger at how Squeak had just blamed everything on him, voiced the worry that he, Snivy had been thinking about ever since the attack but part of him knew that what Snivy had said was true and Snivy did look awfully sorry. And of course, he'd just lost his mum to unknown enemies, commanding vast armies of Metagross…

"Alright…" Snivy said quietly, "We'll go to the ghost forces…"

"I'm sorry Snivy…" Squeak spluttered, "I didn't mean…"

"Forget it." Snivy muttered through gritted teeth, "We're going. I want to help you."

"I'm sorry…"

"Forget it! Where are the ghost forces situated?"

"Veilstone city." Squeak told him, climbing back to his feet through avoiding making eye contact with Snivy, heartily ashamed of what he'd just said, "It's quite a long way from here though."

"But we've got to get Empoleon back." Snivy reminded him firmly

"One of the ghost forces bases is meant to be around Floaroma town…" Squeak said thoughtfully, "And that's not very far from here…but I really think we ought to have a rest now." The fact that he hadn't slept for nearly twenty four hours suddenly hit Snivy who usually slept a lot back in Unova.

"Good…good idea." He said yawning, "We can stop off at a Pokémon centre somewhere."

"Yeah, alright.. And Snivy…"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."


	8. Bandits and Golbats

_**Chapter Eight – Bandits and Golbats**_

Snivy and Squeak spent almost the entire morning fast asleep in the Pokémon centre and by the time they were ready to start moving again it was almost ten and after a good night's sleep, Snivy's grudge toward Squeak had almost completely disappeared. They tried to set out early, but were unable to resist stopping at the Pokecentre on the way, where Squeak used the little money he had with him to buy a small bag, in which he stowed the sticker book he was still carrying. The sun was high in the sky and it had warmed up sincerely.

"So where are we headed then?" Snivy asked, looking down the main street toward a rock cave in the distance then to another path leading off up a small slope to his right.

"Erm…I haven't been out this far for years." Squeak reached into the bag and pulled out his sticker book, which contained a map of the region. Fortunately, he seemed to have got most of the stickers for the map, and the bit they were on was filled in perfectly, "This way to Floaroma…" he pointed at the rock tunnel ahead, "It's not very far. Just through this tunnel and we'll be there."

"Hey you there!" Squeak nearly jumped out of his skin and the two of them whirled around. Standing behind them were three immensely intimidating looking Pokémon. There were three of them. One was very large, although it bore an uncanny resemblance to a giant mushroom with large red pincers extending from under its rim. It would have been less sinister, almost amusing in appearance had its eyes not been set so far back under its mushroom hood so that only two glinting dots stared out at Snivy from underneath it, where eyes would have been. One was what appeared to be a large flying violet scorpion with large red eyes and humongous pincers with lethally sharp edges. The final Pokémon was a humongous grey dinosaur with spikes rimming its head and huge feet with red stripes running down a long rocky tail. Snivy took a step backwards involuntarily and tripped over his own tail, falling onto his back. Squeak's eyes had opened wider than normal and he was shaking again.

"You were at the lake weren't you?" the scorpion addressed Squeak, his red eyes narrowing dangerously. Squeak was shaking from head to foot, "Where do you think you're going? Heard there was a bit of trouble at the lake wasn't there?"

"I said where're you going?" The dinosaur stepped forwards his large and heavy footfalls shaking the ground, the red stripe on his tail glittering slightly as he stepped forwards. Snivy couldn't speak. This humongous Pokémon would've had to duck to fit into the Pokémon centre, and he was easily five times as tall as Snivy himself. Indeed, Snivy found himself looking up to all three of the Pokémon, who were glaring back down at him.

"Awww…they're only kids Rampardos." The bug like Pokémon scuttled forwards, "We shouldn't be mean to them." But Snivy didn't like the menacing glint in the bug Pokémon's eyes as he said this, his claws clicking slightly as he moved like some kind of spider.

"But of course…" the scorpion grinned down, showing three rows of long, sharp fangs, "Where are you headed?" Snivy and Squeak couldn't speak for fear, looking up at the Pokémon glaring down at them.

"Oh come off it Gliscor." Rampardos said, waving the scorpion's behaviour aside, "You never get intelligent answers out of kids like them." Gliscor looked affronted, but when he spoke his tone was dripping with sarcasm, suggesting that the look was put on.

"Your game." He said with a playful shrug, "Parasect, how curious are you about the event?"

"Oh I'm very curious." Parasect clicked his claws together again, shifting on his six long, bug like legs.

"I ask you nicely one more time." Rampardos addressed the terrified Pokémon before him, "Where are you headed?"

"F…f…Floaroma…" Squeak stammered, Snivy still completely unable to answer.

"Here, we'll escort you." Gliscor swooped over them and came to a hover directly behind Snivy, the long sharp sting on the end of his tail hovering inches from the back of Snivy's head.

"No!" Squeak's voice rose until it was a high pitched tremble, "No thank you…we'll be fine…"

"I insist!" Gliscor clicked his claws threateningly and Parasect returned the sound. Rampardos looked impatient.

"We could just see if they've got any cash on them and leave now." He murmured in an irritated fashion to his companions who both cast looks around them and hushed him, Parasect making clicking noises to Gliscor again and they both looked around, but the blue Pokémon, Starlys and Bidoof seemed to be just as scared of the team as Snivy and Squeak were, and were standing well back, pretending not to notice the gang as they terrorised the small Pokémon between them.

"No, we're giving them an escort." Gliscor said finally, hitting Snivy up the back of the head with his long purple sting, "Come on you two."

"No…no…" Squeak gasped in a terrified voice, "No we're fine…"

"Come now!" Parasect spoke directly to them for the first time, "We wouldn't want you being attacked by bandits on the way now would we? You're so small…" Gliscor and Rampardos both laughed, Gliscor's razor sharp claws clattering madly as he did so. Terrified, but unable to stand up to the gang, Snivy and Squeak began to walk forwards, every step proving to be an effort as they were shaking so badly. Rampardos, Gliscor and Parasect made quite a performance of their escort towards the long dark cave at the very back of the route Squeak had pointed down. Though merely the sight of the gang made many Pokémon flee for cover and even the stronger, more evolved ones quail before them they would yell at people to get out of the way is they were on the path at all, not just if they were actually in their way. Eventually Snivy found his voice enough to slip a whisper to Snivy.

"Who…who are they?" he stammered in a whisper

"I don't know…" Squeak murmured, though tears of fright were still streaming down the young Piplup's face, "I think they're bandits." Snivy didn't dare say anything else as Gliscor was now watching him closely again.

Soon they had reached the large dark cave at the back of the route. Rampardos used his massive tail to crush some of the small rocks sealing the entrance to the cave and entered quickly. Snivy, who had never been in a cave before, was instantly amazed. It was a cavernous space with two paths which stretched off in two different directions. From one there was a slight dripping noise, suggesting that there was water. The other looked dry and slightly brighter. There were zubats hanging all over the ceiling looking down at them, spotting the gang surrounding the two newcomers and immediately feigning sleep again. It didn't take Snivy long to realise that none of them would be the slightest use if the gang turned on them, and both Squeak and Snivy knew, this was only a matter of time as they went deeper into the cave. And soon, sure enough, Gliscor had swung his spiked tail around and knocked both of them to the floor behind Rampardos. Snivy knew that he and Squeak couldn't have fought off Rampardos if they'd wanted to, he was so big and powerful, the red bands around him glittering again in the low light. Parasect scuttled off with amazing speed to keep watch on the exit to the cave, which wasn't very far away.

"God we've been making too much of a fuss out of this." Growled Rampardos, drawing nearer, "Now hand over any valuables you've got and no one gets hurt."

"We…we don't have any valuables…" Squeak gasped, trying feverishly to get back up to his feet, but the lightning reflexes of Gliscor meant that this was completely impossible and he was knocked back down to the floor again.

"Search his bag." Rampardos ordered and before Squeak could do anything more than look around, Gliscor had seized the in his claws and tugged it from his shoulder, opening it and looking through. He pulled out the sticker book first.

"Awww…bless." Gliscor said sardonically, before replacing the book and pulling out a small pouch which contained the rest of Squeak's money. Squeak made a grab for it as he tossed it to Rampardos who emptied it out onto his hand. There were fifty shining gold Pokedollars there.

"Not bad for someone so small." He remarked casually, stowing what little remained of Squeak's money into a bag around his own neck, which had been hidden before, "Still not worth the effort though." Gliscor threw the bag he was holding back to the shaking Piplup on the floor, who was crying with rage as well as fear. Then to his horror, Rampardos turned on Snivy.

"What about you?" he glared down at him.

"I…I…I don…don't have anything!" Snivy gasped all in one breath though his voice shook. Gliscor cocked his head to one side as he looked down at Snivy.

"What kind of Pokémon are you anyway?" he asked in what could only be suspicious curiosity.

"I'm…I'm Snivy…" he choked; he was breathing so fast, "I'm from Un…Unova."

"Unova?" Gliscor asked suddenly sounding sharp then he turned to Rampardos, "Unova! That's a new place it has to be! I've seen Pokémon from all over but I've never seen or heard of a Snivy before!"

"Is that so?" Rampardos asked, leering down at Snivy, "Well then…that makes a difference doesn't it? You're coming with us young fellow, I reckon we could get a good price for you."

"No!" Squeak yelled, finding sudden bursts of strength in his legs and jumped to his feet before Rampardos, "No I won't let you!" But in a slightly lazy fashion, Gliscor grabbed the back of his neck with one claw and jerked him upright, holding him five feet off the ground, grasped in his claws, and nothing Squeak did could possibly dislodge them. Snivy attempted to back away, but was halted in his tracks by the reappearance of Parasect from down the corridor.

"Get much?" he asked vaguely

"Fifty Pokedollars from Piplup here, and a unique Pokémon from a thus undiscovered region." Rampardos pointed down at Snivy. Parasect nodded, looking genuinely interested, "Come on Gliscor, put the Piplup down, get the…the Snivy? Yes that's it…and let's gets moving again." as Gliscor swooped over Snivy and prepared to pick him up by his tail.

Suddenly there was a yell and the two bandits froze. Parasect had been upturned onto his back and was lying rested against his shell, his long beetle like legs flailing around in the air. Before Gliscor and Rampardos had much time to react, something large and indigo had descended on them. There were two very large bat like creatures which had just appeared in the cave. Before Gliscor really knew what was going on, they had immobilised him, grabbing him by the sting and wings and throwing him to the floor, Squeak falling from his slackened grip as this happened to land beside Snivy. Another two of the large bats soared inside and flew straight at Rampardos who, although he had the upper hand, stumbled backwards in astonishment, giving the bats enough time to launch two direct hit supersonic attacks at him, rendering him temporarily incapable of doing anything much, so they could secure his hands behind his back with thick ropes. When all three of the bandits were completely detained, the team of bats turned to face Snivy and Squeak, who were still lying petrified on the floor, and from behind them, from the direction of the end of the tunnel swooped another, larger bat. This one looked different however, it was a very rich purple with four long wings and two very short legs sticking out from underneath it.

"We…we're saved!" Squeak gasped in Snivy's ear.

"What? Who is he?" Snivy stammered back, looking up into the face of the bat hovering above him, flanked by the four Pokémon who had taken down the gang, all of whom had large mouths and sharp teeth coupling their wings and short, stubby legs.

"Who is…that's Commander Crobat and his Golbaten team!" Squeak whispered in joy, "They're on the Ghost Forces!"


	9. The Ghost Forces

_**Chapter Nine – The Ghost Forces**_

"We've got them Commander." One of the Golbats flew around the now infuriated Rampardos, who had clearly snapped out of confusion, "They've been immobilised." Rampardos made a grunting noise but couldn't free himself from his bonds. As the light from the entrance to the cave caught his tail, the red stripes on it glittered again in an unfamiliar way.

"Excellent work." Commander Crobat nodded, looking over the prisoners and his Golbaten team, "We really should move out now. We're taking them back to HQ with us." The Golbats immediately set about binding up Gliscor and Parasect before ushering them along with Rampardos to their feet and forcing them towards the exit.

"Com…Comm…Commander Crobat!" Squeak chirruped excitedly as the bat turned back to them and he bowed clumsily, "It's an honour…" Crobat smiled down at him in a distinctly friendly manner then turned towards Snivy.

"I'm frightfully sorry about that." He told them after regarding Snivy for a few curious seconds then decided not to question him, "They won't be bothering you again. Do you want me to see you on your way?"

"Actually…" Squeak recovered himself enough to speak up, "We were…well…we needed to…"

"Let's at least get out of this cave." Crobat told them, glancing around at the cabin. Now that the team had been escorted from it by the Golbats, the Zubats which hung around the walls were slowly starting to fly back around again in curiosity, others were still watching the cave exit apprehensively as though worried the team might return. Squeak and Snivy wasted no time in gathering up the bag, finding the money which Rampardos had dropped all over the floor when he'd been hit by the supersonic attack and putting it all away. All the time, Crobat hovered overhead, also glancing back in the direction of the doorway.

"Okay sir." Squeak said enthusiastically as the two of them lined up beside him

"We're going to fly if that's alright." Crobat told them, "I think it will probably be quicker than walking the rest of this cave." And with no further discussion they began to move down the cave. Crobat had used the two wings lowest on his body to pick up Snivy and Squeak and was still perfectly capable of flying with only the top two. The cave began to largen out as they flew further down it, the ceiling became higher and the walls wider. The Zubat seemed to have agreed that the Bandits were not going to return anytime soon and were instead applauding Commander Crobat with their wings as they hung upside down from the cave ceiling. Eventually there was daylight flooding the cave and they emerged onto a patch of grass on a ledge, looking back down at Jubilife city below them. Crobat lowered Squeak and Snivy to the ground and though Snivy hastened to look down at the sight, all too aware that Commander Crobat was still watching him curiously, Squeak shuffled nervously up to him and asked him to sign his sticker book. The sun was high in the sky now. Jubilife city was packed with throngs of Pokémon. What appeared to be small blue lion cubs were chasing around the streets and there were red crickets on the road as well. After a fair amount of time, Snivy looked back around. Squeak was leafing through the pages on his sticker book enthusiastically as a flattered looking Commander Crobat hovered beside him, holding a pen in one of his claws. It was only now Snivy fully recognised Commander Crobat from the wanted posters. He remembered the menacing looking face glaring out at him, with slightly glowing eyes, his four wings stretched slightly out of shot. That Crobat and this Crobat looked so unalike, that Snivy hadn't recognised him at first. This Crobat was placid and gentle and smiling, not only that, he had just rescued him from being sold on to scientists by Rampardos and the other bandits.

"Thank you!" Squeak erupted hysterically, holding his sticker book up to examine Crobat's signature on the Crobat sticker and beaming to himself. Crobat stole that moment to ask the question Snivy had expected ever since Crobat had offered to help them from the cave.

"Forgive my impertinence…" he said in a distinctly formal manner, "But please, what kind of Pokémon are you."

"I'm Snivy. I'm from Unova. I don't know what Sinnoh is. I'm a grass type." Snivy summarised, already getting tired of doing so. Crobat opened his mouth to ask another question but closed it again, looking up and down Snivy in a bemused fashion.

"Do you mind?" he turned to Squeak and held out one wing for the sticker book. Eager to obey, Squeak passed it to him. Crobat wasted no time in flicking through the sticker book his eyes dancing over every page but he wasn't able to find what he was looking for. Snivy now glanced past Crobat and jumped slightly. The Golbats along with Rampardos, Gliscor and Parasect were still there. Rampardos was eying Commander Crobat in a murderous fashion but he was still bound and surrounded by five Golbats so there was very little he could have done, "Very nice." Crobat's mouth broke into a large smile as he turned to the back cover of Squeak's sticker book and Squeak blushed a furious shade of scarlet. Snivy crossed to Crobat and peered over his wing. There, drawn very roughly in pencil was a sketch of him. It wasn't excellent, and covered half the page with wiggly lines but written underneath it was '_Snivy, from Unova_'. Snivy felt a sudden rush of emotion towards his best friend as he looked at the drawing then stepped back and grinned at him.

"Forgot that was in there." He blushed again, determinedly looking away from Commander Crobat but Snivy did nothing more than grin appreciatively

"Forgive me for doubting you." An impressed Commander Crobat closed the sticker book and passed it back to Squeak, who stowed it into his bag at once looking proud of himself, though still notably pink, "Clearly you are a thus undiscovered Pokémon from a thus undiscovered region. This is big news indeed Snivy. Now where were you on your way to before you were intercepted by this bunch of crooks?" He launched a disapproving look at the three Pokémon bound behind them before turning back to Snivy.

"Actually, we wanted to go to the ghost forces." Snivy said timidly, he could sense that Commander Crobat was important and aside from that, the wanted posters covering Unova of the fearsome bat kept floating back to him, "There's been big trouble." Crobat frowned for a second

"You mean actually go back to the ghost forces' HQ?" he asked in a slightly firm voice. Snivy backed off a few steps, tripped over his own feet and fell to the floor. Crobat's expression lightened instantly and he lifted Snivy back to his feet, "I'm sorry." He said in a far more gentle voice, "But Mistress Haunter simply doesn't see anyone, she only goes out on top secret missions, there are no 'visitors' to the ghost forces HQ."

"But this is important!" Squeak said urgently, seeming to overcome his stage fright, "My mum's been kidnapped! There was an attack last night on the lake and they took my mum, and we ran into two Metagross talking in the forest this morning and we think they're after Snivy…"

"Slow down there!" Crobat struggled to take all this in, "I heard about the attack on the lake, that's all over Sinnoh now, what do you mean they took your mum, do you know who they were and why they're here?"

"We think so Commander." Snivy risked speaking again, "I think I heard their leader speaking." At these words Commander Crobat stiffened looking both horror-struck and slightly pitiful.

"I'm very sorry." He told Squeak, placing one of his lower wings on the Piplup's shoulder as he had hung his head, so he was looking at the floor, then he addressed the two Pokémon as a whole again, "Very well, you may return with me to the ghost forces HQ. I'm sure that this is something that Haunter would want to hear about." Though he said the final point more to himself than to them, "The nearest base is Nova in the Valley Wind works, though I think if we get there we can easily contact the main HQ." Squeak's head had flown up at his tear stained face now looked enlightened

"We actually get to meet Haunter?"

"I'm sure your evidence will concern her." Crobat nodded firmly, "If you want I'll give you an escort. And…yes I think…Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, Omega! We're going to bring those three back with us." He gestured towards the three bandits, all of whom began protesting furiously, but there was nothing they could do as the Golbaten team began to escort them roughly down the path towards a route lined with flower beds, "Come on then, this way." Crobat began to fly down the route, weaving between the flowerbeds to reach the town at the other side. Snivy fell behind slightly so that he could speak to Squeak.

"Can you believe this Snivy?" Squeak chirruped enthusiastically, "We actually get to go inside the ghost forces' HQ and meet Haunter! This is so exciting!" Snivy nodded though in a slightly forced manner. He knew very little about Haunter, only that she was worth more than all the other members of the ghost forces put together, except maybe Darkrai. The only pictures he'd ever seen of her had been of a terrifying Pokémon with two clawed hands glowing read reaching out in front of her as though reaching for something. Snivy remembered with some embarrassment avoiding routes which had this particular wanted poster pinned to them, as it had always given him nightmares when he was younger. Though meeting Commander Crobat had been a shock when he was so friendly, he couldn't imagine Haunter being unintimidating.

"I still don't really know the ghost forces." Snivy told his friend as they walked, "All I've ever seen are the posters." Squeak frowned for a second as though thinking hard but he didn't need to reply as Crobat had swept over their heads again to talk.

"You don't know the ghost forces? Here let me explain…" Crobat said hastily before grinning, "Keep walking, I'll talk as we go along, we're not far from Floaroma town now, it's nearby." Staying to Commander Crobat's left and glancing at an envious looking group of blue squirrels watching them from the side of the route, he watched Commander Crobat as he began.

"The Leader of the Ghost Forces, that is to say our Mistress, is Haunter. She organises us, invents things and plans out all out missions. Mind you that doesn't mean she isn't a good fighter, I don't know anyone who's managed to beat her in a battle yet. If there is a really powerful or dangerous mission she will occasionally go out with the team to try and put it right. She can have a bit of a short temper though, so don't press her is she disagrees with something. You're very lucky to be able to see her; she doesn't see outsiders very often for her own security."

"Second in command from Haunter is Darkrai. Darkrai's been working alongside Haunter for years now, ever since she first formed the forces. Okay, I know that Darkrai isn't a ghost type, but it's close enough and besides, he's a really valuable fighter in many ways. He's a mythical Pokémon and everything too, so Haunter rarely sends him out either, only on exceptionally dangerous missions. Darkrai may appear threatening but in reality he's a bit of a joker, you know, annoys the life out of Haunter sometimes I think. We rarely see him; he stays alone a lot or helps Haunter when she's making plans."

"I'm pretty sure that Haunter's star warrior is Mismagius. Mismagius does whatever Haunter says unflinchingly and without complaining, she has a lot of very powerful moves, perish song for one and Haunter keeps her with her on all times. Haunter is very friendly towards Mismagius but that doesn't mean she goes lax on her and Mismagius behaves like a warrior would to her mistress. I think Mismagius gets to lead missions very often, Haunter trusts her with control and leadership see?"

"Drifblim is Haunter's messenger; he's actually rather fast as Drifblims go and transports Pokémon and data all over the region. Most of the time he stays high up in the clouds so no one can see him to intercept him. He likes to hang around the Wind works, so we might see him there if we're lucky. Haunter recognises how valuable he is in preventing flying types from stealing into the HQ from above and Haunter sends him out a lot. He doesn't speak much but is one of those Pokémon who can just…put two and two together if you know what I mean."

"Me and the Golbaten team, we're the scouts mainly, we go out of our way to break up trouble, collect information or generally report back to Haunter if there's anything interesting or out of the norm going on that we think she should know about. We also try and apprehend bandits like your friends from the cave. Haunter sends us out very frequently. There are another ten Golbats in the Golbaten team but they're off doing something else at the moment, patrolling Sunnyshore city if I remember rightly."

"Then of course there's Nova, Comet and Star, they're the three Gastly Commanders in charge of the various bases and some missions…Oh yes and of course Banette, god she's a nightmare I'm amazed Haunter hasn't kicked her out yet…Ah and finally there's Fly Trap and Starly. Now they're interesting. Fly Trap is a Carnivine you see, one of the only ones in Sinnoh. He fell from the sky over a year ago now with practically no memory whatsoever but he found and befriended a Starly. They have a very long and complicated story that I can't possibly explain now but they're on the ghost forces now along with the wise Onix. There are also hundreds of other Gastly, Zubats, many other Pokémon who aren't ghost types working on the forces."

Squeak was nodding enthusiastically, his eyes wide as Crobat read out each name and summarised who they were. Crobat looked skywards for a few moments then nodded and looked back down at Snivy.

"So there you are, that's who the ghost forces are." He told him. Trying to take it all in Snivy thought for a moment then realised from the wanted posters that there was one name Crobat had not yet mentioned.

"What about Giratina?" he asked. The reaction this had was tremendous. Crobat stopped flapping in shock and almost fell out of the air as a result, flapping faster to keep himself up as he looked around in an almost conspiratorial manner

"How did you know?" he asked suddenly very suspicious, lowering his voice so that only his two companions could hear him, "How did you know that the legendary Giratina was on the forces?" Squeak's mouth had dropped open, though whether it was because Snivy had known this or he was potentially about to meet the legendary Giratina Snivy was unsure.

"There are posters of her up where I come from." Snivy said praying that Crobat wouldn't push the subject. He didn't fancy bringing up the whole wanted poster business just yet. Crobat continued to look suspicious but to Snivy's relief let it pass.

"Giratina is our jewel of the crown." He explained, glancing around again, "She's one of the most powerful dragons there is, no one except the force members I named just now know that she's on the forces, it's one of the best kept secrets of all time. Haunter very rarely sends her out, the last time she sent her out was when they were on a mission to track down mutant Banette but that was around the same time as the Fly Trap incident, almost a year ago." Snivy nodded, feeling frightened at the reaction he had received, "I'm definitely taking you back to HQ." he addressed them both, "I have a feeling that Haunter's going to be very interested in the fact that you knew Giratina was on the forces. Keep up now."

"So you were right!" Squeak said with a small gasp, "Giratina is on the forces. It's amazing." Snivy wasn't so sure.

"So you know anything about Fly Trap? It would be quite nice to speak to him I think…" Snivy was thinking back to what Commander Crobat had said about Snivy falling from the sky with no memory and decided it would be interesting to talk to him and Starly about what had happened as it was a little similar to his own predicament just he had remembered what had happened.

"Not really, I've always been more interested in the actual ghosts on the forces rather than them. Come on! We'll be left behind!" The two of them sped up so they were level with Commander Crobat as he reached a large archway covered in flowers which lead forth into a sweet smelling area full of flowers and some small archways. In the distance, sticking out over the tops of the trees, Snivy could see some large wind turbines which were prominent on the skyline where the valley Wind works must be. They had arrived in Floaroma town.


End file.
